EP #77: Karen's Daughter is Back to kick off 2022!

Sunni and Lisa are joined once again by Amy Bauer, the creator of
www.karensdaughter.com

She is back to update us on her journey and much more!

This is from her website - Hi, my name is Amy and I’m a Karen.
My truth is rooting in growing up in a white, patriarchal society
that taught me the white male is.


If you’re reading this and do not think this is true, then I
encourage you to ask yourself how have you benefited from a white
patriarchal society. When I was 15, I was offered a job filing
papers in the Accounting Department at the local Glass Bottling
Manufacturing Plant. I had this job through high school and
partially through college. This meant that I didn’t have to work
fast food, retail, or in a bar/restaurant 
because I had office experience. 


Amy’s career has been eclectic. Starting in her teens working at
a glass bottling manufacturing plant, to post college corporate
public relations, to a decade building community in the music
industry, to finally landing in the Bay Area start-up
world.  During the time of President Trump and a global
pandemic, the world watched George Floyd murdered. Amy realized
that in order to help others, she would first need to get her own
house in order. With the help of a coaching program, a complete
catatonic meltdown, having difficult conversations with her
family about political, racial, and social issues, and working
through the book, The Artist’s Way, the idea of Karen’s
Daughter arose. 


 As a daughter of Republican parents (and ironically someone
named Karen) Amy asked herself whether there are others out there
like her: progressive white women with Republican families? 
Did they want to show up better in this world for those in
marginalized communities 
but lack the knowledge, resources, and skills to make an impact?


As a way to process her own journey as Karen’s daughter, Amy
created KarensDaughter.com, to help remove the layers of
unconscious bias and to show up as the person she was born as,
not the person her family taught her to be.  Amy’s hope is
to build a supportive community of sacred spaces for white womxn
who are willing to have these difficult conversations with family
and continue to show up for marginalized 
communities and work toward equality for all. 


Are you Karen’s Daughter?
If your parents have different values than the modern
world you want to live in, then you, too, are Karen’s Daughter.
My intention in starting this journey is to show up and put in
the hard work as a white woman to make a better world for the
generations that follow.  I hope that by telling my story,
I’ll encourage more people like myself to have these hard
conversations and build a community that comes together to
support each other.

Who is “Karen”?
We all associate “Karen” with a privileged “Speak to
the Manager” white woman but Karen can come in many different
varieties. There is not a “one size fits all” Karen. Throughout
this journey we’ll expand on Karen, as a person and a concept.


In the case of Karen’s Daughter, she represents my humble mother
who would be too embarrassed to ask for the manager but may still
have strong opinions about how things should be. She’s an honest
woman who loves her family, but may have some fears and prefers
the comforts of home. 


My father is similar in a lot of ways. He is Karen’s Husband who
we will call “Kevin”** on this journey.  I also have an
older sister, who we’ll call Jennifer,** the most popular girl’s
name from 1970 - 1984.  And that leaves me, the youngest in
a family of 4. You can call me Katie**. Bonus points for those
who figured out why I chose that name. 


This is the story of Karen, Kevin, Jennifer and Katie. Welcome to
our white middle-class family.