Kelly Jensen > Quotes

“I define “depression,” but depression does not define me because you cannot define a person. Not with a single word, not with an entire book. Human beings defy definition. Yet the stigma surrounding mental illness makes some believe we can use it to define others, and it often deceives us into believing we must use it to define ourselves.”
― Kelly Jensen, [Don't] Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start the Conversation about Mental Health

“But here’s the thing: other people’s opinions are not the truth. We live in a world that puts us into boxes and labels them with Sharpies, yet those boxes are lies. They flatten us; they limit who we really are. Feminism”
― Kelly Jensen, Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World

“When I had my gallbladder removed in 2010, no one dismissed me because a part of my digestive system was faulty. No one listened to something I had to say and responded, “He can’t be trusted—he doesn’t have a gallbladder.” Yet this happens all too frequently with those who live with mental illness. We are dismissed, distrusted, told our thoughts are not our own.”
― Kelly Jensen, [Don't] Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start the Conversation about Mental Health

“And society will want to vilify her for loving herself and for the choices she will make in pursuit of that love.”
― Kelly Jensen, Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World

“And that when we say “It Gets Better,” it doesn’t mean “Everything Gets Solved.” It means you will still carry the weight from when things weren’t good, but you will be stronger for it the next time you’re unhappy—and that time will come.”
― Kelly Jensen, [Don't] Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start the Conversation about Mental Health

“Feminism is not a physical uniform.”
― Kelly Jensen

“We all have things - and sometimes people - we are unable to look in the eye.”
― Kelly Jensen, [Don't] Call Me Crazy

“Our bodies and minds are always working together, but we don’t always treat them as two equally important parts of who we are. It is far easier, for example, to take a day off from life because of the flu than it is to take one off because of having a case of the sads. But both of these things are valid and have a tremendous impact on how we move through the world.”
― Kelly Jensen, [Don't] Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start the Conversation about Mental Health

“The fact that you have lived through every single one of your most awful days is legitimate proof that you can do it again. Statistics are on your side. You got this.”
― Kelly Jensen, Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World

“It’s strange to realize that, despite having an innate ability for it, I am actually terrible at being crazy. How can one be so bad at something one is meant to be? Bipolar disorder is, after all, some combination of genes and their expression. Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s dopamine.”
― Kelly Jensen, [Don't] Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start the Conversation about Mental Health

“Don’t let the Muggle-like thoughts dim your magic, dear!”
― Kelly Jensen, [Don't] Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start the Conversation about Mental Health

“Feminism is about recognizing power and fighting to distribute it equally, regardless of race or class or ability or gender. Feminism is not static, and it never has been. In fact, feminism demands change.”
― Kelly Jensen, Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World

“Accessible design is not ubiquitous, though, and despite governmental regulations (which differ from country to country and from city to city), it’s not a standard of physical or digital experiences. More often than not, the bare minimum is done to meet requirements.”
― Kelly Jensen, Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy

“I did just what society asked of me: I tried to show the world my ability and denied myself my disability.”
― Kelly Jensen, Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy

“Write what you know,” the old saying goes. To which I say, “Bullshit.” I don’t know any Goblin Kings, I’ve never lived in eighteenth-century Bavaria, nor do I compose music, all of which my protagonist knows intimately. My adage is this: “Write what you know to be true.” Write your lived experience into existence. Write your truth.”
― Kelly Jensen, [Don't] Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start the Conversation about Mental Health

“good, but you will be stronger for it the next time you’re unhappy—and that time will come.”
― Kelly Jensen, [Don't] Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start the Conversation about Mental Health

“When I drive to work, I listen to thuggish rap at a very loud volume, even though the lyrics are degrading to women and offend me to my core.”
― Kelly Jensen, Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World

“Bodies aren’t simply biological. They are radical tools. They are physical and political. They impact our mental well”
― Kelly Jensen, Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy

“When I choose to love my body, to look at it with compassion and remember all the awesome things it can do, I am rebelling against a system that wants to keep me down. I am actively protesting the status quo that aims to keep me self-obsessed, self-critical, and self-oppressing.”
― Kelly Jensen, Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World

“By redefining what it means to be a “woman,” feminism also redefines what it means to be a “man.”
― Kelly Jensen, Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World

“Feminism isn't about the specific, individual choices people make in how they look and feel. Feminism is about how an individual's ability t make choices about how they look and feel and take care of themselves.”
― Kelly Jensen

“When we think of interdependence, we often think about relationships with people and with communities. Giving and receiving help from friends, neighbors, and family link us all together. As my body has changed, I have become more dependent on objects and have grown to appreciate them as part of this complex infrastructure that facilitates my survival.”
― Kelly Jensen, Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy

“I’m so mad that my fingertips tingle; I feel like I could zap this man with the pent-up energy like a ragey adult Matilda. “Van Gogh was really sick!” I want to yell at him. “Tell your kid that mental illness can be very hard, and how important health care and access are, how we have to talk about it.”
― Kelly Jensen, [Don't] Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start the Conversation about Mental Health

“That they are hers and hers alone to make mistakes with, to connect with, to have beautiful experiences with, to share with whomever she chooses?”
― Kelly Jensen, Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World

“I really struggled, wondering if losing my virginity could still be a special moment if it wasn’t with someone special and I hadn’t particularly cared one way or the other.”
― Kelly Jensen, Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World

“As an awake man, I need to acknowledge that feminism benefits me. Feminism seeks to dismantle all gender stereotypes. By redefining what it means to be a 'woman,' feminism also redefines what is means to be a 'man.' And to live in a world where men are encouraged to express their full range of emotions, where they are encouraged to be their own unique selves without being anchored down to some narrow, societal definition of 'masculinity'? Count. Me. In.”
― Kelly Jensen, Here We Are

“But it was the women and the girls that blew me away. So many of them looked like me with wide noses, big saucer eyes, large breasts, short bodies, tiny hands, and hairy arms.”
― Kelly Jensen, Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World

“Disavowing body obsession is also a political act because it refuses to pay money and time to a billion-dollar “beauty” industry that benefits directly from women’s insecurity”
― Kelly Jensen, Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World

“A feminist was someone who lived life fully, who endured what came to her and triumphed over it. A feminist was someone who acted, who set her sights on a dream and made it come true. A feminist was someone who loved deeply, and who allowed that lover to change her. She was complicated and sometimes contradictory, witty and full of integrity. A feminist, in my mind, was a woman full of potential.”
― Kelly Jensen

“I want to be in charge, respected, in control, but I want to surrender, completely, in certain aspects of my life. Who wants to grow up?”
― Kelly Jensen, Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World