Give yourself a voice through writing | Anne Louise Phillips | TEDxTupelo Women

Quick Overview

Anne Louise Phillips argues that writing, especially personal narrative and fiction, grants women a voice and the power to process difficult emotions and situations, enabling them to overcome adversity by externalizing their experiences.

Key Points: Phillips discovered the power of writing when she wrote a story about a character like her 6-year-old self who felt trapped and then made it through by writing about it. She cites research showing that students who wrote about stressful events before a test performed better, suggesting writing reduces anxiety and fear. Writing allows individuals to process emotions and situations, like those experienced by Shakespeare's sister, Judith, who may have been limited by societal circumstances of her time. Phillips realized that writing about her own anxieties, such as feeling crushed by expectations or being a first-generation college student, provided her with a sense of responsibility and helped her overcome those feelings. The act of writing, whether fiction or non-fiction (like notes on a phone), gives the writer a voice and the ability to rise above difficulties. She encourages the audience to take time to write something down, emphasizing that it doesn't need to be good or publishable, but it will help them process what they are going through.

Context: This TEDxTupelo Women talk, titled 'Give Yourself A Voice: The Power of Writing,' features speaker Anne Louise Phillips, who is a writer, photographer, and Humanity student at Mississippi State University. She shares her personal realization about the therapeutic and empowering nature of writing, using her own early experiences and historical examples like Shakespeare's sister to illustrate how articulating experiences—even difficult ones—can provide internal clarity and emotional relief.

Detailed Analysis

Anne Louise Phillips delivers a personal narrative emphasizing the transformative power of writing for women, encapsulated in her talk title, 'Give Yourself A Voice: The Power of Writing.' She recounts an early experience at age six where she wrote a story about a character stuck on a boat, who ultimately freed herself by writing, an act Phillips later realized she was projecting onto her own life. Phillips, a first-generation college student, felt immense pressure and anxiety about meeting the expectations of others, her parents, and her mentors. She discovered that by writing about these pressures—like feeling crushed by expectations or navigating college life—she was able to process them objectively and gain a sense of control, which she found emotionally and physically beneficial due to the release of happy chemicals like dopamine. She draws a parallel to Judith Shakespeare, William Shakespeare's sister, suggesting that writing could have given Judith a voice to overcome the constraints imposed by her era. Phillips concludes by urging the audience to use writing—whether a full story, a poem, or even a quick note on a phone—as a tool to process whatever they are facing, asserting that the act of putting thoughts down strengthens the writer and helps them rise above adversity, regardless of the writing's quality or publishability.