El­sa Wrench

I used to joke that Judette Cow­ard could make oat­meal ex­cit­ing.

And then she did, with a For­ward Forty video on How to Make An Amaz­ing Bowl of Oat­meal. Ba­nanas, cin­na­mon and some cane sug­ar are in­volved there, but the most im­por­tant in­gre­di­ent in this new lifestyle dig­i­tal se­ries is Judette's un­end­ing op­ti­mism, and faith in a new col­lec­tive of women that has sprung up on­line.

I first met Judette about a zil­lion years ago when she was a pro­duc­er at TV6 and I was in­flict­ing my­self on an­oth­er news­pa­per. I used to won­der where she got her hap­py pills. She al­ways had a bril­liant smile and end­ed her emails with one word "Joy.''

Or­di­nar­i­ly, that sort of thing would be too Dis­ney for an old Grinch like me, but Judette's light spir­it is ir­re­sistible.

For­ward Forty is a se­ries of blogs and videos on fash­ion, well­ness, beau­ty, trav­el, hair care, work-life bal­ance, and just liv­ing life more ful­ly. It speaks to women 40-plus but younger women are al­so at­tract­ed be­cause, af­ter all, there is no age re­quire­ment for be­ing fab­u­lous.

The first video was cre­at­ed around the be­gin­ning of this year and women re­spond­ed so en­thu­si­as­ti­cal­ly, the se­ries kept grow­ing.

Af­ter a short hia­tus, Judette launched the se­ries ear­li­er this month, in a chic event, and here we are–our own voic­es, our own show­case, our own move­ment where women can rock and roll, shar­ing tips, tech­niques, and ex­pe­ri­ences, on what­ev­er in­ter­ests them, with­out apol­o­gy.

So if we want to talk about how to cre­ate the per­fect plum pout or six ways to wear a sim­ple white shirt, we can.

Who says pow­er­ful, con­fi­dent, in­tel­li­gent women can on­ly get to­geth­er in book clubs or char­i­ta­ble events with­out be­ing deemed friv­o­lous?

Now, I should prob­a­bly be jab­bing Judette in the eye with a tube of lip­stick be­cause the "styl­ista opin­ion­ista" plat­form is my ter­ri­to­ry. But there is al­ways room for new ideas, more tal­ent, and a fresh voice to re­mind us that we de­serve to chase our dreams.

The thing about Judette that puz­zles and in­spires is that she nev­er gives up.

She is ab­solute­ly fear­less when she de­cides to take a leap–like walk­ing away from a good job at TV6 to form her own com­mu­ni­ca­tions firm; like sink­ing all her sav­ings in­to an in­vest­ment prop­er­ty; like open­ing a pre-school called Man­go House in Ch­agua­nas, while still run­ning her Man­go Me­dia Com­mu­ni­ca­tions firm; like mar­ry­ing a curly-haired charmer she met while on va­ca­tion in Italy, nev­er mind he bare­ly spoke Eng­lish and her Ital­ian came from a phrase book.

Even when things don't quite work out, she hangs in there, not grudg­ing­ly, not stingi­ly, but with a reser­voir of en­er­gy that nev­er seems to dry up.

Sure, she has had her pain–bad stuff hap­pens to every­one. But she still kicks as­sets in her sky­scraper heels and crisp cu­lottes.

When I found out her mar­riage to the cute Ital­ian had end­ed, I want­ed to throw some­thing at a wall. I had so en­joyed the boy-meets-girl-and-moves-half-way around-the-world-to-be-with-girl sto­ry. But, shucks.

The woman didn't even say a bad word about him; in­stead she calls him an amaz­ing guy and says im­pos­si­bly sen­si­ble and perky things like, "When love trans­forms, it doesn't have to be bit­ter or ug­ly.''

Any woman who can do that with­out the help of med­ica­tion and gi­ant mar­gar­i­tas must have some­thing to say that is worth lis­ten­ing to.

Join the con­ver­sa­tion at www.for­ward­forty.com.

Then tell me what you think at wrenchel­sa@hot­mail.com