Re-Introducing Dr. Elsa, “The Warrior KQueen”

Why I Claimed the title, “The Warrior KQueen,” and Why I Continue to Embrace it in the New Decade of my life.

“She wasn’t looking for a Knight. She was looking for a Sword.” – Atticus

Dear Fellow Warrior,

I hope you had a fantastic summer. August is over, and we are now in the second week of September, at the start of a new Academic year, and also National Suicide Prevention Month.

It is also the start of Suicide Prevention Week, and World Suicide Prevention Day today (September 10). And as you know, National Suicide Prevention Month is an all-round important month for “the Warrior KQueen.” So I wanted to take this important moment to reintroduce myself here.

In the process, I will share with you my reasons to continue this blog in a new decade of my life, and further offer some explanation and clarification on the use of my personal and creative brand, “The Warrior KQueen.”

In a previous blog post at the start of this year, I wrote about the different hats I wear and different spaces I inhabit in my personal and professional life. You can also read about it in this medium post.

Well, I think it was about time that I talked to you about what may be considered the “elephant in the room.” I guess with me there are many ‘elephants.’ Luckily elephants are one of my favorite animals. 🙂

This particular elephant is one that has been hard for me to embrace in certain spaces.

We always feel like we have to explain ourselves for our different creative ventures to the world of “non-creatives.” Most people in our lives may never understand our creativity, nor support any of creative activities, no matter how long we pursue it, until and unless there is evidence of capital connected to it (social, financial, economic capital, etc).

It represents a larger problem for the “aspiring” creator, writer, artist, professional. When we don’t have the support or the community surrounding our passions, that can help nurture our “identity capital.”

When thinking about the different hats I embrace as a content creator and writer, admittedly, I have been confused about this one.

Perhaps it seems a little childish or unprofessional to some people to call myself a “Warrior KQueen.” The perceptions are perhaps unspoken, which I sometimes sense from my personal and professional networks where I have shared my blog posts. There may sometimes be negative energy coming from those who choose not to understand our creativity and authenticity.

But this blog encompasses a space that involves what Julia Cameron calls, the “Artist’s child.” So I feel I will embrace it even if it appears childish to some.

And since I started this blog, it had become a critical part of my life, a critical part of my existence.

You can read my story here which gives a little About Me as the blog Author:

If you don’t read My Story, this section here best summarizes the purpose of this blog:

“In this space, I plan to share some of my personal reflections, provide insights from my struggles, with emphasis on the challenges exuding from the many intersections of our identities, purpose and existence, ambitions and pursuits.

In the process, I hope to offer my services of comfort and consolation in whatever way I can to those feeling marginalized and alienated in the web of complexities in terms of one’s relationship to the world.

In sum, my blog aims to contribute bringing a sense of awareness and demonstrating how mental health and well-being is concomitant to the challenges coming from the intersections of our social identities.

Social inclusion, building bridges and breaking barriers is core to my being and purpose.

I have gradually learned that my calling is to speak for disadvantaged and marginalized voices on every corner of our diverse communities.

Because this blog is intended to nurture empowerment, I serve you, as a Warrior Queen.”

This passage I believe best explains my personal purpose and mission: To elevate the most marginalized and vulnerable voices through empowerment, social inclusion, breaking barriers, building bridges, spreading awareness, and ultimately curing stigmas.

I want to come back to that mission statement and improve it. It’s all a work in progress and evolutionary process…

My hope was to find my tribe, build an army of Warrior Kings and Queens fighting to “change their stars” in all elements of their existence and persistence.

As a writer, it is tough to write and not have your words be seen. To be invisible as a writer is immensely “soul-crushing” as other writers say.

For that reason, I would keep writing in spaces like Instagram and Facebook, because I would notice people in my networks reading those posts and not clicking on my blog pieces. Though that has now decreased significantly due to algorithm and user changes. But whenever I would finish and submit an article from this blog, it would be the most incredible feeling. That’s how I feel about other spaces now too, including Substack and Medium.

The first blog article was a designated feature article on this blog since I started this back in 2016 and it has been for over eight years now. It explains my primary reason for starting this blog, and what to expect from it.

Meet Elsa, The Warrior KQueen

I am now removing this first blog post from the feature article slot, and for the first time since I started this blog, and replacing it with this reintroduction piece.

I have also made a few updates throughout the blog and will continue updating different aspects of it periodically.

That first piece explains how I conceptualized this blog and why I originally called it “Elsa the Warrior KQueen.” It was a personal mantra for self-empowerment through my mental health challenges in the middle of my PhD program. And it was at a time when I just entered the 3rd decade of my life, “coming out” with my health condition on social media (August 2015 – which I have talked about in other posts), and figuring out my personal methods to cope with my condition, especially in the absence of other types of support from elsewhere.

The title and mantra was also influenced initially by the now infamous Disney character. In this article, I wrote about how that impacted my life at that time. Hearing the name Elsa in the movie, Frozen, was really crazy surreal for me. Here I am, growing up in Wisconsin, getting teased for my name, Elsa, in middle school, and now it is the most popular name in the world.

I then found myself on quest to take that name back for myself, and through my creative endeavors. I wrote a children’s book that I intended to publish, “Elsa, the Warrior Princess,” as a series, which addresses bullying and racism as a brown child in school, and still thinking about rewriting, illustrating and publishing now that it is much easier to do.

Ultimately, this blog was essentially a place for me to share my journey of survival, make room for others to share their stories, and at the same time as a self-apprenticeship.

Since then, blogging on your own WordPress domains has dissipated. Many online bloggers and creators have ditched their websites and moved onto other platforms like Substack and Medium (I am there too), largely because it is hassle-free and without technical issues (which I have faced often myself). I will continue to monitor these discussions and see what is best moving forward with this.

As I carry the “Warrior KQueen” mantra forward, integrating it into my blogging efforts, creative projects, and other endeavors, I intend to weave this personal brand into both my personal and professional life. While I haven’t always shared this identity in certain professional spaces, I embrace it when discussing female empowerment or sharing personal, creative insights—which I believe is entirely appropriate.

Overall, I embrace “Warrior KQueen” because, as an academic, writer, scholar, entrepreneur, international development professional, and consultant, it represents a unique, powerful brand identity. By embodying this mantra, I become multidimensional, creating not only a sense of personal empowerment but also offering a source of inspiration for others who understand its fundamental vision and mission. As I continue to enhance my personal and professional profile, I aim to build a platform that supports and uplifts others.

The “Warrior KQueen” becomes a holistic representation of my personal and professional strengths: the qualities of resilience, empowerment, self-awareness and advocacy embodied by the “Warrior KQueen” align closely with both my academic and professional pursuits.

As I continue building my blog, I aim to integrate the “Warrior KQueen” into my professional brand by bridging my expertise in academia and international development with the themes of empowerment and resilience. Through this blog, which I aim to build into a creative platform, I share insights on how my experiences shape my understanding of overcoming challenges, while creating a relatable human element that resonates with both professional and personal audiences.

My goal is to leverage this identity into other collaborations, using it as a tool to inspire others while also expanding my professional network surrounding the relevant themes of mental health, intersectionality, empowerment, social justice, women’s rights and social inclusion. By doing so, I hope to contribute meaningfully to academic discussions, consulting projects, and creative endeavors.

Through diverse content, ranging from research on empowerment and mental health to practical stories of personal growth, I hope to eventually serve as a thought leader who blends professional expertise with a powerful personal ethos.

Hence, the “Warrior KQueen” serves as both a creative outlet and a holistic brand, allowing me to advocate for mental health, social justice, and empowerment in ways that inspire, motivate, and uplift those around me.

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This site will need some revamping, care, and maintenance, and at some point I hope to have a virtual assistant to help improve and clear up some of the errors. For example, I lost many photos in some blog pieces and didn’t take the time to update a few pages and posts. Perhaps there may be many lessons on blogging I could share with others who are starting their blogs for the first time, and I hope to talk about it in a future series of articles as well, and perhaps a YouTube video on my channel.

Moreover, I hope to make it a goal by my 9 year anniversary of starting this website (February 2025) to fully revamp this space so it is more appealing and approachable.

Please don’t be intimidated by the purple and the pink. 🙂 Purple became my favorite color largely as it connected to my nieces who loved that color as well. I also am feminine and I love the traditionally feminine colors, but the dark purple and the rose gold in my logo work well in the color scheme I envision.

For the moment, please do follow my Warrior KQueen Blog, to follow my journey and also for many forthcoming insights, tools, resources on living a “porfolio life”, embracing intersectionality, fighting and curing stigmas, and empowering ourselves and ultimately our communities. I will create a more easily accessible ‘follow link’ in the near future so please watch out for that.

It is indeed a place where we work together to change our stars. We are more than our ailments and challenges connected to our identities!

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Here, in this piece below, I share an update on this blogging endeavor which is very special to me. For my 40th birthday this July, I gifted myself, finally, with a creation of a logo for the “Chronicles of a Warrior KQueen:”

You can read that piece to learn about the details on how I conceived that logo & why it is special to me.

The summer is over now, and I took the time to reflect on a lot of things.

Reflection and the concept of reflexivity is something I am very passionate about as you may know or come to know if you read me. I wrote about Reflexivity in my last newsletter HERE. Please take a moment to read about the value of Reflexivity. Reflection has always been critical to my writing journey. I will discuss it often in my research going forward. In sum, reflection helps build humility, self-awareness, and resilience for personal and professional development, all key to the values of the “Warrior KQueen.”

Further, as I took the time to reflect on a lot of things this past summer, I wanted to recap a few things.

In June, I started my “Academic comeback journey” with a trip to an academic conference that holds special place in my heart. This journey back into Academia has now become a permanent quest for me. I can say that I never left it, and I am a “student for life” in so many ways. At times it feels like I never got my doctorate. But now I have it.

I learned from that experience that it will remain a challenge for me in so many ways, but I am inherently an Academic and I will nurture that in all ways that I am able, including through my newsletter, medium, and peer-reviewed publications in the pipeline, while I continue to figure out the next steps of my life.

You can learn more about that experience and my “Academic comeback Journey” which I restarted this past summer on this Medium piece HERE.

In July, I turned 40! As I shared in this speech in this post here: https://www.warrioretkqueen.com/speech/

I also wrote a piece on Medium about Turning 40. Please read it HERE.

It has been a brutal transition since I finished my PhD, now over three years ago. I honored my three year anniversary of that achievement in July as well. You can read about it HERE.

I am still at that transitional phase and I will continue to keep pushing through it. Writing here has been helping me through these challenging times, just as it helped me through my doctorate.

As a writer on Medium, I attended Medium Day, and it had been one whole year since I joined Medium. On that day, I was proud to confirm that one style of writing that comes naturally to me is memoir. I am definitely a memoirist and a confessional writer. I think you may agree with me on that!

I was getting the idea a couple years ago, that my style could fall in the category of confessional poetry. But in any case, it made sense to me. I think my full memoir could come from many of my writings here on the Chronicles of the Warrior KQueen, and beyond. My social media was practically a public journal for me, of which I have been able to transform into blog articles as well.

The important thing we remember as writers is that we never stop improving our craft and using whatever medium we have to keep writing will be a critical part of that journey.

The first time I learned about the concept of a “Portfolio Life,” was through writer Jeff Goins, in Real Artists Don’t Starve, and his blogs. When I started this blog venture, his “Intentional Blog” writing course was the first blog course I participated in, and it was very helpful. The Portfolio Life is an idea that we can embrace multiple identities and wear many hats and achieve multiple goals in our lives.

You are welcome to learn more about my “Portfolio Life” with my new Linktree Account: https://linktr.ee/dr.elsatkhwaja

Here I lay out the other spaces from my “Portfolio Life,” where you can find my content:

Please feel free to subscribe or find me there as well!

My YouTube Channel (now 2 years in the making!): https://www.youtube.com/@drElsaWQ

Medium: https://medium.com/@elsatalatkhwaja

My new Academic Newsletter: The Qualitative Inquisition | Dr. Elsa T. Khwaja | Substack

You can also find me on these links here on X, Instagram, and Linkedin.

Here is my professional website: www.elsatkhwaja.com

While I continue to revamp my Painting Heals Initiative on this blog, you can find many of my paintings on my Painting Heals Pakistan Website too: https://paintingheals.elsatkhwaja.com/gallery-of-paintings/

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In this Chronicles of a Warrior Kqueen Blog, you will find the following:

My Story An ‘About Me’ section where I share the journey I wish to take with you in this blog.

My Projects A section where I will update you on all relevant products and creative projects connected to the “Warrior KQueen.”

Painting Heals Gallery of diverse series of paintings (I hope to be updating this page periodically!).

Mental Health Library – A repository of resources (which I started back in 2016 and will come back improving gradually soon!)

Your Story – A space to help you share your story with me, or share how the Chronicles of the Warrior KQueen impacts you in any way. I also welcome feedback to keep improving this blog and website for you!

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This blog was to help with my transformation, for personal and professional growth, in the quest to keep “rewriting my story,” changing my stars,” and sharing the story of survival, my “triumph of an underdog story” as I often like to say.

As I noted earlier, a grand transformation that was made within the past 8+ years of this blog, was that I am no longer that nerdy PhD student by day as described in my first blog piece introducing Elsa, the Warrior KQueen.

I am now “Dr. Elsa, The Warrior KQueen,” and no matter how this may be perceived, it is an important change, an important development, an important milestone achieved in my life. As I have noted before, the fulfillment of what I used to consider, “an impossible dream.”

And as I embraced every single identity intersection that I have, which this blog signifies, I will carry these titles I believe I earned, both as “Dr.” and as “Warrior KQueen,” going forward.

Along the way, I hope it inspired some people, and I hope it will continue to inspire more people as I continue to embrace the “Warrior KQueen” in this new decade of my life.

I hope it moves you to stay empowered and resilient through your struggles, and through your connection with community and the human family.

I appreciate you being with me on my journey as a blogger, writer, and creator, all those who have read my words in this space. New posts will be shared twice a month going forward, with a few extra posts here and there.

This “Reintroduction” has been a bit delayed for many months now, and as this summer has ended, and for many reasons, including some personal challenges. But the show must go on and I will continue even if I have to crawl, as Dr. King once said…

As shared above, (at the top of this post this time), I normally sign off all my blog posts across social media, when referencing the Warrior KQueen with the quote from Atticus the Poet: “She wasn’t looking for a Knight. She was looking for a Sword.”

I can reveal now, if it wasn’t obvious already, for the fellow warrior, that “The Sword” that I was looking for, was indeed my writing and speaking voice. And I have been fighting to find, nurture, build my voice in all my academic, personal, and professional pursuits.

The “Warrior KQueen” helped me survive through very challenging times, and maybe even save my life at times. It also helped me on the quest to develop my voice. And that is why I can’t let go of it now. I hope to continue empowering myself and others as I keep nurturing this space and elevating my voice.

Thank you to all those who have given my voice a chance, who have been with me on my writing, academic, artistic, creative and personal and professional journey thus far, and I hope you will continue to be with me as I embrace, “Dr. Elsa, the Warrior KQueen,” in this next decade of my life.

Happy World Suicide Prevention Day. Happy National Suicide Prevention Month.

Let us continue to embrace the transformative power of difficult conversations.

Stay Resilient. Stay Empowered. Stay Connected.

Peace, Warmth, Blessings, and Solidarity,

Your Sister,

Dr. Elsa, Warrior KQueen

“She wasn’t looking for a Knight. She was looking for a Sword.” – Atticus

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Here are resources for Suicide Prevention:

United States: Call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Learn more at American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
International: The International Association for Suicide Prevention and Befrienders Worldwide

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Thank you for reading and engaging!

You can learn more about me here. If you feel inspired by my writing and would like to support me, you are welcome to do so HERE.

I also welcome discussion. Please feel free to use the comments section below. Thank you, I wish you well on your academic, writing, and artistic journey!

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