Hi! Welcome to my website! My name is Erika Matthews, and I am the founder here at FemaleFinest.com.
There is nothing special about me, I guess. I do not have a thousand followers on Instagram, I do not have management experience or motivational speaker privileges… I do not even have any letters after my name. I think that all these things combine to make me a normal American woman… and I think that is the thing that makes me special.
My younger years were spent living at home with mum, dad, and three elder sisters. Dad was always overruled in just about every decision. It was a very matriarchal environment, which is rare in a patriarchal society. We became quite heavily invested in this kind of ‘Little Women’ style of living.
My mother raised us to be wholly independent. She was a seamstress and took in things like curtains and dresses from all over town. We were always around sewing and creativity from an incredibly young age. My father raised us to be able to change our own fuses, fill our own gas tanks, and whip up an apple pie that would put the world’s best to shame.
One of my earliest memories of family life is the car running out of gas on the way home from school one day. We all got out and pushed while my dad steered us home. God knows what passersby thought about it all – but that is how it was in my house. Man or woman, you pulled your weight doing what you were best at… and sometimes what you were best at was pushing the broken down chevy home while your dad – the only driver in the family – navigated you home.
Forming Female Finest
I digested books like a normal kid digests video games. I was a huge R L Stine fan. If I misbehaved, my mother would threaten to forego buying the newest book for me.
When it came college time, I leapt at the chance to study away from home. My parents could not afford anything spectacular, but I got a place at the college a few towns over and my education just sort of spiraled from there.
College was an interesting time for me. I saw women in this weird other light that I had not been introduced to before. There were girls that came from broken families, bad backgrounds, and abusive relationships.
There were women in my college class who had been raped, who had been objectified, and who had been turned against one another. There were women who talked negatively about one another because that was what they had been taught… that they were somehow in competition with one another.
“I Set Out to Make a Change”
I really wanted to go to Chicago University to explore female rights, but I could not afford the student debt. Instead, I finished college and stayed on in the city.
I lived with one of my aunts, worked daytime in a coffee shop, and worked on my new project at night… a website that would celebrate and inspire women in all shapes and sizes. We are more than our bodies. We are more than our husbands. We are strong, fierce, independent – and we support each other.
Female Finest was years in the making – but it is finally here. It is a place where we can share secrets and gossip, without having to tear each other down. It is a safe space for women to see and be heard. It is a place where we can grow and learn together, as women, in peace.
Female Finest is a place that you are welcome to join… and we sincerely hope to see you around.