Winner of the 2011 Women Entrepreneurs Mastermind Contest, Mandy Richardson is a DIVA Extraordinaire with an Honours Degree in Religious Studies (Spirituality & Personal Development) from the University of Waterloo and a diploma in Social Services from Conestoga College. She is currently enrolled at the University of Metaphysical Sciences in California with the goal of earning her PhD.
Mandy is the founder and creator of Mandyland Magazine, the director of Humanity Photography and the sole proprietor of GODS & DIVAS; a business that specializes in personal transformation.
As a self-proclaimed word addict, she is the author of over 20 blogs (both public and private) and has published two books. Mandy's first book was ‘Wake Up! This is Your Life’ (2006) and her second book, ‘The Poet & The Butterfly’ with Keveen Gabet of Korakor (2008) became Echo Weekly’s January 2009 Book of the Month.
Her Mandyland Musings and Mandyland Column in Echo Weekly earned her a Literary Award nomination for the 23rd Annual KW Arts Awards Waterloo Region (2010), and this inspired her to create the Mandyland Awesome Awards.
When she isn’t writing or napping, Mandy models and hosts Mandyland Radio on iTunes and Sexpot Studio on YouTube. She lives with her daughter, Paige, in a pretty little home in Cambridge, Ontario.
ABOUT MANDY
My greatest passion in life is being myself as fully as possible while sharing my joy and self-discoveries with others through books (The Poet & The Butterfly, Wake Up This Is Your Life), blogs (Mandyland Musings, Mandyland Magazine, Got Her Mind On Her Money), videos (Sexpot Studio), classes (GOD & DIVA), Facebook updates, one-on-one conversations, and Mandyland Radio.
I love steak, extra sour apple martinis, dancing, old school, R&B, hiphop, technology, and anyone who rocks. I especially love the sun, skunks and V8. I have a fabulous bestie, a kickass kid, a beautiful home and more zest for life than anyone I know. I love my life and everything in it, but that wasn’t always the case.
I grew up in a family that included alcoholism, drug addiction, sexual abuse, mental health issues and more. I was hospitalized for depression at 17. I had an unplanned pregnancy at 18. My mother died of brain cancer when she was only 56, and I have been living under the poverty line for almost 2 decades. Each of these events have shaped who I am today. For the better. I wouldn’t change a thing.
My daughter’s arrival in 1995 completely altered the trajectory of my life. It inspired me to look within and make the difficult but necessary changes to ensure that she would not go through what I did growing up. After witnessing and experiencing so much dysfunction as a child, I was ready to begin my journey towards wholeness and alignment, if only for my daughter’s sake. So while my peers went to parties and did what most teenagers do, I left my family, raised a child on my own, and sought to transmute my pain from the past into something beautiful that would one day inspire others to do the same.
Despite not wanting or feeling ready to be a mother, I turned out to be a great one. Paige is now 17 and I have more than succeeded in my goal of raising a child who feels loved, secure, safe and supported. Paige is all I could never be growing up. I am both proud and envious of this. She is my daily reminder of why I sacrificed so much, and she has been one of my greatest teachers along the way; wise soul that she is. She’s also an incredible photographer. Check out her work here.
She was conscious that the things she did, were the things she had always wanted to do.
~Zelda Fitzgerald
BECOMING A MOTHER
LOSING A MOTHER
In 2009, I was fortunate enough to heal the difficult relationship I had with my own mother just days before she died (you can read about it here). I spent her final week by her side, sleeping on the hospital floor and caring for the woman whose presence in my life had infused much anger, frustration and hurt over the years. One of the last things she did was apologize to me for not protecting me as a child. She also commended me for breaking the cycle. It was a full circle moment for me that validated all the work I had done. Breaking the generational cycle of dysfunction and thereby raising a healthy, balanced child with self-worth, is by far one of the greatest achievements of my life.
MANDYLAND TRIUMPHS
