One of the first major literary works I remember reading is Little Women.

I cannot recall how old I was, but when the 1994 silver screen adaptation came about, I quickly realized the book is always better than the movie. But my mom loved the film, and the movie gave vivid imagery to Louisa May Alcott's characters in a way that made them feel more present, more real.

What Little Women Gave Me

Little Women gave me a framework for thinking about sisterhood before I had the language for it. It showed me women who were different from each other — in temperament, in aspiration, in the particular shape of their struggles — and yet bound together by something that transcended those differences.

It showed me that strength in women does not look like one thing. That the quiet, steady strength of Beth is as real as the ambitious, restless strength of Jo. That the domestic grace of Meg is as valuable as the unconventional courage of Amy.

The Women Who Shaped Me

I think about the women who shaped me — my mother, my grandmothers, the women in my church community, the women I served alongside in the military. They were all different. They all carried different kinds of strength.

What they had in common was this: they showed up. They did the hard, unglamorous work of love and service and faithfulness. They built things that lasted — not always the things they intended to build, but things that mattered.

The Lloyd Legacy

There is a particular kind of legacy that women carry — not always in the public record, not always in the documented history, but in the ways that the people they loved were shaped by knowing them.

I think about what it means to be a Lloyd woman. To carry that name and everything it represents. The particular combination of faith and grit and warmth and stubbornness that I have seen in the women of my family.

I want to carry that well. I want to add to it rather than diminish it. I want my sons to know, someday, that the women who came before them were worth knowing.

For the Women Reading This

You are carrying a legacy, whether you know it or not. The ways you show up, the values you embody, the love you extend — these are being received and internalized by the people around you.

You are shaping someone's story. Make it a good one.

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Dr. Rebekah C. Lloyd writes about faith, family, women in leadership, and the legacies we carry and create.