GIRL OF THE MONTH: HANNAH KEARNEY

Hannah in the Studio, originally uploaded by ahlivv.

When watching Hannah Kearney, a native of Vermont, nail that last mogul run to reach her long awaited goal of gold on Saturday night, I actually got teary eyed. I remember watching her as a nineteen year old competitor in Torino four years ago, when she entered that Olympics as a favorite and then didn't make it past the qualifying round. Instead of crawling into a cocoon and giving up, she focused the next four years, and showed up in Vancouver determined to walk away with the gold medal.

On Saturday, my friends and I crowded around the TV. We yelled across the house, and it felt like we were in the stands cheering right along side her family as she went faster than we could have imagined down the hill. She said that she came to win this time, and for all of us that get what it is like to try, fail, and then actually succeed, we knew exactly what she meant.

I decided after watching Hannah's medal ceremony (20,000 people attended!) that I wanted to have a section on here to talk about those who really exemplify what it is to be a girl in the hall. Instead of a lot of teen magazines and sites that glorify girls who are famous just to be famous or are notorious, this Girl of the Month part of the blog is going to profile all sorts of girls who don't give up, are talented, and aren't afraid to show who their true selves. Hannah Kearney is all of those of things, which is why she is the first Girl of the Month. She also often rocks braided pigtails, which is pretty frickin' awesome.