Today marks the 109th International Women’s Day, a day when we highlight the successes of women around the world and the continued fight for gender equality. And here at Shoot My Travel, we can think of no better way to celebrate than showcasing the successes and insights of our very own international woman, the co-founder & CEO of Shoot My Travel, Valerie Lopez! 

Today finds Valerie in New York City as a guest speaker at the annual Women’s Travel Fest, but she sat down with us to answer a few very personal questions, from who the most influential women in her life have been to what she loves most about being a woman. 

Who are the women who have most influenced you in your life?

The women who have most influenced me are my mom, my sisters and my aunts. I grew up in a household full of women! My mother and her four sisters, and my grandma, the head of the household, who left everything behind in Colombia and moved to the U.S. to raise her five daughters and pursue her dream of becoming a clothing designer. Which she did! She also put my mom and all her daughters through school. 

My mom and aunts still had to work a lot and didn’t have a lot of means. Some of them were able to graduate from college but some weren’t. Still, they pushed through and built careers out of nothing, becoming the inspiration and the foundation for our family.

I literally feel like I have five moms. They are out of this world and so strong and have created this bond as sisters that they have passed on to us daughters and which we will pass on to our own children.

How did your childhood contribute to the woman you are today?

Growing up in a family of only women definitely showed me how multi-faceted women can be. We can give life, we can go hunt, we can then transform that hunting into food. We can be professionals and evolve and change careers. Watching my aunts really showed me that we women can do anything and there’s no challenge that we cannot take on. It has made me the woman I am today. Fearless. Because I saw it in each one of them. 

If you could say anything to 10-year-old girls everywhere what would it be?

It would be to not let fear paralyze you, but to use it as fuel. If you have fear, obviously not in a situation that’s putting your life in jeopardy, but if you have fear of launching a business or becoming a soccer player in school or achieving something you want, use it to fuel you to be the best. Fear is amazing. It reminds us that we’re alive and it can also be a great fuel if we know how to use and integrate it. So it’s okay to feel it. Just keep moving forward and through it. 

What’s the single most important habit you have that’s contributed to your success as a woman?

Definitely discipline. I feel that I’m very disciplined and diligent with what I do in order to succeed. And discipline allows me to organize myself, create a strategy, and also have free time which, in turn, allows me to be more creative.

How can men best champion the women in their lives?

Supporting them, empowering them, and changing their language and word choice. Stop using phrases that have been instilled in us since we were kids. Like, “You run like a girl” or “You’re such a pussy.” Stop using words that put women down and exchange them with positive words. Even though we might think these are normal sayings or just what people say, they actually have a huge impact on who we are as women and how the world perceives women.

I'm super grateful that my two co-founders are men who understand and champion women. One is my husband and one is my really good friend from childhood and they both push me to be the best version I can. Because they know that if I grow, they grow, and everybody grows.

On hard days, what motivates you to get up and start your day?

The love and the passion that I have for this project. And the love and the passion that I have for living, in general. On hard days I remind myself that this too shall pass. In Spanish we say, “Todo pasa.” This will pass.

If you could meet anyone, man or woman, living or dead, who would you want to meet?

Without hesitation, Michelle Obama. I look up to her so much, even more so after reading her book, Becoming. I so identify with her journey and how she did it with so much grace and how she keeps doing it! She understood and showed that you have power to transform people’s lives and affect them and be an inspiration for the world. I think that’s my overall goal in life, to be an inspiration to other women. Michelle Obama is such a huge role model and has shown so many people that you can make it and get to the other side without having scandals or playing dirty games.  

What was the first thing you bought with your own money?

My grandmother died and left each grandchild $1,500 which I thought was a fortune when I was 18 years-old. With it I bought a camera. My big sister asked me, “How are you going to spend the only money you have on a camera?” And I told her, “It’s my dream and my passion and I bet I can pay it off in 3 or 4 shoots.” At the time she didn’t understand and today she apologizes for doubting me when I wanted to buy that camera. But I have no hard feelings, and I know that camera brought me to where I am today. So that money and that camera hold a lot of meaning for me.

What do you love about being a woman?

The intuition that women have and the fact that we can connect our brain and our heart and have that sixth sense, gut feeling. That’s something I think we have developed much more than men; intuition and a sensitivity towards knowing what direction to go. And when we tune into it and start listening it becomes stronger and our decision making process becomes better. Intuition is such an important part of being a woman that I actually have it tattooed on the back of my neck.