Folks, this Friday is International Women’s Day! While we’ve got some great content coming up that celebrates the historic holiday, I wanted to talk about what it means to me, after briefly explaining how it even began.

The very first International Women’s Day wasn’t recognized by the United Nations until 1975. However, the first National Women’s Day was celebrated in 1909 in the United States, when the Socialist Party of America created the day to honor the women that protested against hazardous conditions and low wages in Manhattan’s industrial workplace. Many of those women, of course, immigrated to America for a better life.

I feel like International Women’s Day means something different to everyone. To me, it celebrates just that: international women.

I know an international woman pretty well. (She’s my mom!) My mother immigrated to the US from India in her twenties. She attended medical school in India and followed her dream of becoming a doctor. After completing her residency in New York as a physician practicing internal medicine, she raised me - now 28, and my sister - now 35 - with the help of a supernanny (who I practically considered a second mom).

Between the supernanny, my mom, my big sister and our wise, female dog who was my BFF growing up, I was raised by strong women. My mom worked long, hours to give her daughters the safe, loving, cushy lifestyle we were blessed to have, acting as both mother and father of the household.

I know it’s, like, so cliché to honor your mom on International Women’s Day. But my mom, who left her native India to give me and my sister the life she didn’t have growing up, is the epitome of an amazing role model on this holiday. Like, it’s so crazy to think that I wouldn’t even have this opportunity to live in America and write for a living had my mom not come here in the first place.

So, here’s to all the moms who busted their butts to give their broods better lives. Here’s to the moms who immigrated here; who are the same boss ladies that uprooted their lives to make their children's lives even more special.

This International Women’s Day, I guess I just wanted to give an extra shout out to all the hard-working mamas out there.