“I am woman, hear me roar
In numbers too big to ignore
And I know too much to go back an' pretend
'Cause I've heard it all before
And I've been down there on the floor
No one's ever gonna keep me down again”

With the powerful words of Helen Reddy's classic, I kick off the start of my new column “Maria’s Slate”. As most of you have already guessed, this will be a column featuring topics and events that concern today’s Greek-American women. As a young Hellene born and raised in America, I am often frustrated to find that very few internet sites, books and magazines exist that cater to my needs and interests.

More specifically, this will be an outlet that speaks directly to Greek women and addresses current events, serious topics and of course the essentials: fashion, health and entertainment.

For example, do you know how many Greeks are involved in the media industry and are considered apart of Hollywood’s upper echelon? Or that a huge Greek movement is now occurring in fashion and Greece’s top male model Marios Lekkas, is now gracing the pages of international fashion magazines and the runway shows of Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Valentino, and Gucci?

In addition to topics that I care about, I want to hear about what you care about. Feel free to email me at maria.athanasopoulos@gmail.com voicing your opinions and concerns about any topic, any person and anything! I will take your interest one step further by doing some research and providing you with deeper insight.

Therefore, get ready for some hot topics in NEO’s November issue and also don’t forget to VOTE! The election is days away and your vote plays a much larger vote than you may think.