YWiB USask Wonder Woman of the Month - Holly Legge

Feminist: driven, confident, independent, self-sufficient, empowered, positive.

As the September YWiB USask “Wonder Woman of the Month”, Holly Legge embodies an empowered woman who has built her success on her own terms, her definition of a feminist perfectly reflecting who she is.

Holly Legge is a registered nurse, a health and wellness coach and holds the title of Mrs. Canada Globe. She has surpassed the expectations placed upon her and has persevered through life’s challenges with impressive strength, class, and positivity.

Having the opportunity to speak with Holly was exciting for me. I have been following her on social media for a while and am consistently impressed with not only her many accomplishments, but the messages of she shares inspiring her followers to find their own strength and confidence. Holly exudes beauty from the inside and out in every post while fearlessly expressing exactly who she is.

Holly’s road to success was not always a clear path. She was not the high 90s high school student, and consequently felt she was not smart enough to pursue post secondary education let alone a career in the healthcare field. She remembers feeling lost, lacking confidence and was unsure of where she was going. Her mother, someone who has been an inspiration to Holly, always stressed the importance of education. With a helpful push from her mother, Holly went on to pursue her paramedic certification. That was the turning point for Holly as she found her path, learned to hustle, and decided to continue learning, growing, and chasing her dreams.

Holly insightfully described the road to empowerment as a process. You don’t just wake up one day saying, “Yup, I’m empowered”. Beginning with confidence, a confident person becomes ambitious, and ambition leads to success and prosperity and develops into empowerment. Confidence is like a seed; if fueled appropriately can grow into something great and powerful. Becoming exactly who you are supposed to be takes time, and the process is different for everyone. As someone who has been crowned as a beauty queen, won in many bodybuilding shows, and had impressive public success, Holly will testify that the real winning moments are behind the scenes in personal growth and learning.   

One of my favourite moments with Holly was when we talked about the accomplishment she was most proud of. I was expecting one of her titles to stand out to her or perhaps where she has taken her career. Her answer surprised me, and further enforced my understanding of what she meant when she talked about the importance of personal growth. Holly’s biggest accomplishment was making it through her divorce in full form, owning the fact her relationship failed and rebuilding herself all while becoming stronger person.

Holly’s experiences and personal empowerment has enabled her to excel as a registered nurse and as a health and wellness coach. As a nurse, she has the opportunity to help women who have not felt empowered to seek the help they need to get to a better place. She assists her patients in finding help with addiction or a lack of education about how to properly care for their bodies. Additionally, as a health and wellness coach, Holly is able to see that weight loss is a side effect of rebuilding and healing a broken spirit. She is passionate about building women up so they too can grow to be empowered, successful women.

Holly is a positive influence for many people. She inspires women around the globe to be the best version of themselves, modeling by example and offering meaningful advice. She truly believes that no matter what has happened in the past, women have the power to accomplish anything when they find their direction and set their mind to their goals. There is no reason to limit yourself to what you have done in the past, and no reason for negativity to ruin the present or future.

As for the future of feminism, Holly knows it will push forward through individual’s actions and lifestyle choices. Women need to avoid falling into passive roles that leave them feeling powerless and instead, choose to do what they want to do and do what fulfills them. Women need to stand up for themselves and say no to people who push them down and make them feel small. Avoid keeping company with negativity and spread positive energy to those around you. Feminism is about female empowerment and about women being enabled to be who they want to be.

The key takeaways from talking with Holly was to be confident in yourself. Your inner and outer beauty is powerful. Continue to stand up for the women around you. Both men and women who build each other up have the confidence to do so and understand that one person’s success does not mean the other’s failure. Know the value of a great support system, yet keep people around who challenge, inspire and push you. Finally, create a culture of positivity. Surround yourself with positive people and spread positivity. Holly says: take off the ugly, dirty negativity shoes and put on the glittery, sparkly positive shoes and you will be set.

Huge thank you to Holly Legge for working with us! Come check out our event and hear Holly Legge speak Thursday, September 27 2018 from 4-6 p.m. in the Moeller Resource Room (244) at the Edwards School of Business for tacos and talks. Follow @holly_legge on Instagram to keep up with Holly.