I am a daughter, a sister, a wife and a mother. I am a friend of

Carre Otis, model turned truth-teller and defender of women’s dignity, once declared with unshaken strength: “I am a daughter, a sister, a wife and a mother. I am a friend of women and I am their advocate.” In these words she gathers the many roles that women bear and transforms them into a banner of solidarity. She proclaims not only her own identity but also her allegiance to all women, binding her personal journey to the greater struggle of sisterhood. To be advocate is not merely to speak, but to carry the burdens and voices of those silenced by the world.

The origin of this declaration lies in Otis’s own life, marked by both hardship and courage. She endured the brutalities of an industry that often treated women as objects, and later, she rose to confront the injustices she had suffered. Her words were born not from theory but from lived experience: the daughter who learned, the sister who shared, the wife who endured, the mother who nurtured. Each role became a pillar of her identity, and in them she found the authority to stand as a friend of women.

History reflects this pattern in countless heroines. Sojourner Truth, once enslaved, spoke before crowds as both mother and advocate, asking, “Ain’t I a Woman?” She, too, claimed the fullness of her identity and turned it into a weapon against oppression. Like Otis, she did not abandon her roles as woman, mother, or sister; she used them to illuminate injustice and to demand recognition for all women. Advocacy is strongest when it springs from the lived truth of those who suffer.

Her statement also challenges the world’s attempt to divide women against each other. By naming herself a friend of women, Otis rejects envy, rivalry, and silence. She affirms the ancient truth that women rise higher when they rise together. Just as in the suffrage movement, where unity among mothers, daughters, and sisters overcame centuries of exclusion, Otis’s words remind us that the struggle for dignity is collective, not solitary.

Therefore, O seekers of wisdom, remember this lesson: the strength of womanhood is not found in one role alone, but in the harmony of many. Daughter, sister, wife, mother, friend, advocate—each is a thread in a greater tapestry. Carre Otis’s words call to every generation: to honor these roles not as chains but as powers, and to turn private pain into public courage. For when women stand together as advocates for one another, they become unbreakable.