It was not one I read, but one that I wrote or actually co-authored with 530 women. I, myself, am a man, but saw an opportunity during COVID-19 that put the world in a very unique situation, in which mostly everyone was home -- some of us were lucky enough to keep our jobs, most of us were not.

Running a blog of mine, https://confessionsoftheprofessions.com, I was looking for something to keep my visitors entertained and interested, as I do every year -- try to come up with a unique project that I focus on, and decided I would start collecting COVID-19 stories. I got one straight out of Wuhan China on the first try and while it wasn't anything that was earth-shattering, it was really cool to get a story from a Chinese woman. https://confessionsoftheprofessions.com/my-life-in-china-dur... (I even rehired most of the women from China to get their stories which made my website go viral in China in just a month)

This actually sparked my interest in another idea: what are women's lives like around the world? Family life? Government treatment? Work life? Goals? Failures? Successes? Various questions surrounding the topic. Figured they could give me about 500-750 words -- but a glimpse.

It was then that I realized I had access to women in over a hundred countries around the world through Fiverr, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Most were home, most needed work, so I offered them all about $10 to $20 each to write me a story. Fiverr doesn't have access to every country, so once those women were done with their stories, I looked at their surrounding countries and asked if they had any networks of friends or family they could ask and I'd double the rate as long as they gave half to the woman who responded and completed the assignment. I also did the same thing on Fiverr when there weren't any women available in certain countries -- I asked men, and they were all quite helpful. While there were plenty of no to helping answers in the beginning, I began coming across people who were fascinated and wanted to help me complete this project. The women who joined were excited and really wanted to see it.

My goal was all the countries Fiverr had in their listings... and then I just kept going to get every country, including North Korea, Cuba, and several other communist counties, where I actually had to hire someone, which I found one guy who had a cousin working in a refugee camp, so he was able to obtain the story for me. I paid for several translations to get every story back into English. Doing this project changed my life to realize that we still have a world that is very common with [sex] slaves, sex trafficking, child brides, and prostitution which is all quite common.

On a brighter note, it was amazing to hear and read so many women changing things in their lives and in their countries for the better, breaking out of abusive family traditions, routines, and norms. Building companies, making changes, petitioning against laws that put them at a disadvantage, etc. My team (the men I hired on Fiverr and women I rehired) and I ended up speaking to about 1500 women from every country in the world, including a massive amount of islands and territories, quite a few around the Scotland area and South America, as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The final result ended up being 530 women from 201 countries.

After collecting all of the stories for this project, originally meant to be published on my blog, I realized I needed to somehow memorialize and add this one to the history books, quite literally, so I turned the collection into a book called My Life As A Woman: World Edition, which is available on Kindle and as a Paperback on Amazon. I actually posted about it and someone downvoted me for some reason and that killed the post. But if you're interested, you don't talk to 1500 women, just as you won't read the stories of 530 women, and not have it change your life in some way. It's just a very inspiration and motivational book. You can read more about it at https://mylifeasawomanproject.com