I seem to always forget the anniversary of the site. I guess that’s good because that means I am busy and have a lot going on. But this year is a milestone — 5 YEARS! and I didn’t want to let another day go by without acknowledging it and thanking everyone who reads the site.

Five years ago the site began on blogger then moved to word press, and now, early next year we will celebrate our second anniversary on Indiewire.

As you can probably tell, I love doing this work. There have been so many great things that have come out of the work of the site that sometimes I have to pinch myself because I hardly can believe it.

What I realized is that while we are a blog and our job is to bring you news about women and hollywood, this site has become more than a blog. It is a movement. And we embrace that. It is our job to help push issues that others can’t or won’t because of who they are and where they work. We’ll be doing petitions, calling people on the carpet when they need it and pushing the envelope on the need for more women’s voices. As I said at a recent panel in LA, I am a flame thrower.

I hope you have noticed that there are more posts on the blog. The site has morphed into not only reporting news but also curateing many different voices and opinions. We know we can’t cover and see everything and we are so excited and appreciative of the guest posts and cross posts that have been on the site. (And yes, we are happy to include male writers as long as they write about our topic.)

The reason why we can get more content up is because there is another person working with me. You’ve seen her byline. Kerensa Cadenas has been working as a writer on the site since this summer. She and I figure out the stories we want to focus on and while writing I an editing and looking for more posts to include. I would be nowhere without her.

As we move into 2013 I am heavily focused on the 3rd annual Athena Film Festival — a celebration of women and leadership — which will take place from Febraury 7–10 at Barnard College. All access passes will go on sale at the end of this month and single tickets in early January. The festival is an important outgrowth of the work of Women and Hollywood and this year will be even better than thre previous two (which were pretty damn good.)

Some more news is that FINALLY my e-book In Her Voice: Women Directors Talk Directing is in the final production phase. People who read this site and those that are on my weekly email list (you can sign up on the right hand side of the blog under email updates) will find out first about the book and will also get discounts.

I am grateful to all your support for the past five years. I do this each and every day because I believe with all my heart that we are better people if all different types of voices and stories are included in our cultural conversations.

Here’s to women’s voices and visions. I can’t wait to see where this work takes us next.