Dolly Parton THE PHENOMENAL

When I was 15, Dolly Parton hit the charts with Jolene and if someone had told me then that someday she would be my pick for a phenomenal woman, I would have a scoffed: back then she was just a country singer with embarrassingly big boobs (I was 15!), lots of curly blonde hair and glitter.

Perhaps back then Dolly hadn’t had time to grow into the phenomenal woman that she is now, or perhaps the world didn’t appreciate what a star she was to become. Referred to as the ‘Dolly Lama’ she frequently has something to say on almost every topic, be that life, love, work, beauty, social and political issues, religion, and she’s not afraid to speak up against all types of discrimination including that of the LGBTQ+ community and Black Lives Matter - more of which I’ll share later.

At 75 she seems to be unstoppable having a career spanning over 50 years, written more than 3000 songs, won 10 Grammies, sold more than 100 million records and the list goes on. She’s not only a music legend but she’s also a very canny businesswoman, author, style icon and philanthropist.

Her goddaughter, Miley Cyrus, has referred to her as being, ‘at her core, …the definition of a humanitarian’ which we saw early in the pandemic when she donated $1 million to COVID-19 vaccine research publicly used her voice to encourage everyone to take up the vaccine when it became available.

But this kindness and willingness to put herself forward isn’t a new persona just for publicity or social media memes - she’s