Tracey Emin is creative because...

Liisa of Charming Quark

Meet Liisa, 45, the editor of the inspiring Charming Quark blog. With a mixture of interiors, photography, and illustration, she manages to stimulate and entertain just the same.

Follow the link below for excellent advice on how to keep blogging fun and varied, and what to do when it's not anymore.

Why Are Women Businesses Smaller Than Men-Owned Ones?

Professor Sharon Hadary gives possible reasons over at The Wall Street Journal.

Share the Love!

As of today, GIRLS CAN BLOG is on Flattr! If you'd like to join the party (see video below), but still miss an invite - not a problem: GIRLS CAN BLOG has registration codes to give away... First come, first served, just post a comment on this post and include your contact email or twitter account!

Smilla Dankert of anders-anziehen

Stylist Smilla Dankert has made her passion her profession by sharing her fashion finds on a blog that is unequalled: anders-anziehen portrays authentic people between the ages of eight and ninety-seven that attract attention because of their unusual style.  


Follow the link below to find out what one service Smilla thinks Google's Blogspot should improve and how life choices may determine the way you dress.

UPDATE: In the meantime, Smilla has been nominated for the famous Grimme Online Award. If you'd like her to win the people's choice award, follow this link to vote for her.

The Bechdel Test for Women in Movies

via Svenja Schröder's mädchenblog.

Gudrun aka Piratenweib

Today's guest on GIRLS CAN BLOG is Gudrun aka Piratenweib. In spite of surfing the web even before it existed, she only started her own blog after joining Germany's Pirate Party last autumn. Gudrun's been an active member of the blogosphere since.

Now, before scrolling through her well-organized link list, find out how people used computers to get in touch before the Internet arrived and how to advertise your blog right.

Nikola Richter of Blogmakery.com

 
Award-winning poet Nikola Richter liked blogging so much that she decided to make a living from it: Blogmacherei or Blogmakery is her one-stop-blog-concept-shop for cultural and political institutions.

Follow the link below to find out what Nikola's blog has to do with a bakery, why twitter helps with taking notes and why she hasn't attempted to make another audio slide show since September 2009.

Mary Scherpe of Stil in Berlin

Today, street-style queen Mary Scherpe of Stil in Berlin took the time to answer the GIRLS CAN BLOG questionnaire. Stil in Berlin, that Mary started as something like a neighbourhood project, became Germany's first fashion blog that currently draws 7.000 visitors on an average day.


Follow the link below to find out who's responsible for Stil in Berlin's design, why Mary doesn't really tweet and why you should know your IT in order to get creative.

Nadine Lantzsch

Nadine Lantzsch is the woman behind the Medienelite blog, who wrote the article that inspired the GIRLS CAN BLOG project.   


As an expert on many things, but first and foremost on online journalism, Nadine highlights in her interview how personality is key to great blogging, why tweeting helps, and that you should never blog if you feel the need to learn how to do so.

Kathrin aka Kommander Kaufmann

Meet Kathrin, an Austrian-born journalist who shares favourite net finds and personal thoughts on her blog Kommander Kaufmann. It shows very well that pop culture and political subjects aren't mutually exclusive, but that they make for an interesting mix instead.

Read Kathrin's interview below to find out why passion is key to great blogging, how her blog's name came about, and which other three female-run blogs she recommends.

Carola Muysers of Berlin Woman

 

Besides being the head of her own agency, art historian Carola Muysers is the editor of Berlin Woman, a new blog on cultural life in Berlin. 

In today's interview, Carola talks about her blog's quick-start, why Berlin is so important for her work, and the plans she has with Berlin Woman for the future.

Helga Hansen of the famous Mädchenmannschaft

As a representative of the award-winning German mixed-gender blogger group Mädchenmannschaft [Girls Team], bio technologist Helga Hansen has filled in the GIRLS CAN BLOG questionnaire.

Find out how the Mädchenmannschaft came about and what to consider when you're thinking about starting your own blog.

Melanie Niethammer of side-glance

Today's featured blogger is Melanie of side-glance (blog has been deleted in the meantime :( ). 

Read her interview and blog to find out what makes studying computer engineering even harder than just the maths, and which cartoon could illustrate every single one of her posts.


Melanie loves feedback, so if you have any questions, just shoot them into the comments section.

Katy Derbyshire

Translator Katy Derbyshire, who has translated, amongst others, work by famous German authors Julia Franck and Ingo Schulze into English, has been blogging on lovegermanbooks for a little over two years now. Her topics include current issues in German literature, her life as a freelancer, and the German literary market. 

Check out one of Katy's translations from 2007 over at the Berlin-based literary magazine no man's land (a sister publication of the German lauter niemand), before finding out more about her below.

Antje Schrupp

Ladies and gentlemen, GIRLS CAN BLOG proudly presents blogger luminary Antje Schrupp in this week's portrait. 

Antje is a journalist and political scientist who has been blogging on gender roles and related poltical issues since 2006. She's an independent thinker who has received a doctorate for her work in the field of female political philosophy.

Luciana of German Fashion Blog "Lu zieht an. ♥"

A large number of female bloggers concern themselves with fashion. Just like fashion magazines, some of them attract many thousand readers: Take rail thin New York blogger Tavi, who started her influential fashion blog Style Rookie at the mere age of twelve.

GIRLS CAN BLOG would like to seize the opportunity and introduce to you healthier role models, like German blogger Luciana Schmidt, the editor of the popular, yet out of the ordinary fashion blog Lu zieht an. ♥. With her unique personality, Lu turns high-street fashion into original styles wearable for girls of all sizes.

GIRLS CAN BLOG mailed out a couple of questions to Lu, and received some interesting answers. Just click on the link below to find her statements both in English and German. 

Start of Blogger Portrait Series!

From today on, GIRLS CAN BLOG will be introducing successful female bloggers in a portrait series. Hooray!

Girls Blog, Too, You Know

Dear bloggers and blog readers,

when it came to my attention that women are underrepresented in most blog charts, I wondered why. Certainly, there are many intelligent and outspoken girls and women out there who have been active in the blogosphere. Where are they, though? How come that, as of February 2010, we only know a fraction of them?

GIRLS CAN BLOG would like to raise awareness of the relatively small number of female opinion leaders (both online and offline).

To this end, GIRLS CAN BLOG would like to host a collection of professional and semi-professional blogs edited by women of all backgrounds and areas of interest. Young girls especially should be encouraged to use the Internet to make themselves heard.

GIRLS CAN BLOG is pro open-source knowledge and very interested in networking with international organizations who aim for the advancement of women and girls in society. Education and the ability to read and write are crucial in a world that is taking place on screens more and more.

As of yet, GIRLS CAN BLOG is a private initiative, but I would love to turn it into a proper organization eventually. In the meantime, please support this blog by mailing your favorite links and best ideas to girlscanblog (at) googlemail.com.

Looking forward to hearing from y'all!

Annina

PS The links to the right are for starters only - soon, there will be more links, reviews and relevant news. Follow GIRLS CAN BLOG on twitter to be sure not to miss any important updates.