Feminist Who? Kelly Sorensen

Kelly is an awesome AWESOME girl that I have the pleasure of working with on G.I.R.L. I have known Kelly for many many years and not only is she hilarious, extremely open-minded, and rad. She is also super smart, an amazing singer, and extremely mature! She can look at anything objectively and see the truth of the situation. (at least from my perspective)

Name: Kelly Sorensen
Age:23
Location: Studio City, CA
Occupation: File Clerk and (on-hiatus) Writer, Producer and Host of G.I.R.L. (Girls in Real Life)

1)Why do you Identify as a feminist?

I identify as a feminist because once I truly understood what feminism was and can be, I realized it coincided with the feelings I had about gender & gender relations as well as homophobia and racism. It was as if I had been a feminist since I was 13 or 14, but didn't have the vocabulary or critical thinking skills to elaborate on the injustices I saw around me.

2) What Kind of feminist issue interest you?

I'm very interested in issues of representation as well as the lengths we go to in order to categorize ourselves. When I was introduced to queer theory in college it gave me a whole new perspective on what it means to define oneself by gender, race, age, occupation, political affiliation, and even as a feminist. I am also a huge believer in consciousness-raising and think it is the single most important factor of feminism today.

3) What kind of work do you do in your field of interest?

As a file clerk I don't get to do as much in the way of feminism, but working on G.I.R.L. is definitely something I'm proud of being a part of. On the show we tackle issues like body image, bullying and prescription drugs and open up an online forum for people ages 12-24 to participate and communicate within. I'd say this is one of my proudest contributions in life because it is the ultimate way to raise consciousness about issues without necessarily scaring people away by using the F-word (feminism!).

4) Who are your feminist heroes?

I have a lot of feminist female musical heroes (Bjork, Alanis Morissette, Fiona Apple, etc) but as far as declared feminist heroes I'd say Luce Iragaray, Sarah Haskins, Dr. George Tiller (RIP), anyone that has ever contributed to Our Bodies, Ourselves, and a former professor of mine, Deborah Cohler. There's definitely more, but for the sake of brevity I'll stop here. :)

5) If you could say one thing to all the women and girls in the world what would it be?

I guess I'd have to say something cliche, 'knowledge is power'. It seems so trite but it is such a important idea to keep close to you. So often it's things like money, possessions and beauty that are regarded as important, but if you live your life as if everyday could teach you endless new things (and from people and places you'd never expect), it's far more rewarding and empowering.


if you would like to be profiled, email me your answers to these 5 questions at aneimand@feminist.org and attach a jpeg photo.