Moth stories have the power to bring you into a world that is often not your own and leave you wishing that you could live in that world

Just a little bit longer since 1997 the moth has shared more than 50,000 stories with audiences around the world through shows

Workshops and on the moth podcast and the moth radio hour once the curtains have closed the rooms emptied and the voice is quieted

It's the stories still ringing in our ears that whisper over and over we are all of us more alike than we are different

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Welcome to the moth podcast. I'm Jody Powell your host for this week

This episode we're looking at power who gets it who wields it and what it takes to find it and

Since March's women's history month we're sharing two stories from 2017 of women and non-binary people that found power within themselves

First up is Lerillyn K. They told this at a moth open mic stories slam in Boston where the theme of the night was discovery

Here's Lerillyn live at the moth

My mother sat in the passenger seat on the move from Ohio to Pennsylvania

Staring straight ahead her lips pressed tight

And I was in the way back of the station wagon with my feet up against the window

Yelling out license plate numbers in a game that I made up to distract my younger siblings

For my mother the move and my father's bankruptcy meant humiliation

But for me it meant that the last three months of eighth grade would be spent at grade school number four

And I was nervous that the spitballs and

Signs hung on my back that had welcomed me to grade schools number two and three would be repeated

And all I wanted was to fit in

Fat fucking chance. I am so much better at standing out at having really strong opinions and

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