By: Shelley Barrow

WRI Insider

After ten years in the NFL and playing for several teams, they receive that all too familiar phone call. This time it is the Baltimore Ravens on the other end and just that quick, it's time to move to a new city again.  Mioshi Johnson packs her husband Chris Johnson up and sends him on his way to Baltimore, Maryland to join the eventual Super Bowl Champions.  With three kids at home engulfed in school and activities, coupled with Mioshi entering her final year in Surgical Technology School, she had no choice but to stay in Texas. She did what so many NFL wives are forced to do, sacrifice, juggle and make it work. In addition to being a mother and student at home in Texas during the week, she also was a loving, supportive wife on the weekends in Baltimore.

Although Mioshi Johnson a Texas native met her future husband in 1997 in High School, they did not start dating until 2003.  Taking a huge step of faith, the youngest in a close knit family left her hometown to begin their journey in the NFL with the Green Bay Packers.  By 2005 they were traded to the St. Louis Rams, then on to the Oakland Raiders for eight years and now her husband plays for the Baltimore Ravens.

Growing up around mostly women; all strong and educated, an emphasis was placed on how you carry yourself.  Be more than pretty, be smart, loving, and kind.  Mioshi has continued to live by that motto and now constantly reminds a new generation to “Be pretty, smart girls.”

It was one of those weekend trips to Baltimore where a movement was birthed.  While talking to her daughter and niece they began to reveal the daily pressures that young girls were facing.  Sexting, drugs, sex, fighting and sending inappropriate pictures over the internet were some of the topics they discussed.  Mioshi immediately began to brainstorm ways to help them deal with how to handle these issues, but to her surprise, the girls had already started the process.   They began to mentor their classmates through encouraging conversations and expressing the importance of being a “Pretty Smart Girl” and the rest is history.

WRI – Mioshi, why Pretty and Smart, why not something else?

Mioshi – I want them to know that pretty is not just based on the physical.  We live in a society where a lot of who you are is based on how you look.  We want these young ladies to know pretty is on the inside, it is how you feel about yourself and how you feel and care about others.  Smart, society thrives on being smart, everybody is not the smartest in the class and that is okay but you can be passionate. Through your passion, make yourself knowledgeable and become informed.  It is important to do your best, continue to always develop yourself to become what you want to be.

Pretty and Smart is not only how you carry yourself but it is how you communicate, your attitude, your confidence and your desire to help others.

WRI – What is your mission for Pretty Smart Girls?

Mioshi - Our mission is to empower, inspire, and develop young ladies in today's society. We aim to teach them how to impact the world by striving to reach their full potential, through enriching the lives of others. We're giving them life tools to make beauty and intelligence work together.

WRI – What steps are you taking to accomplish this?

Mioshi – One very important component is mentoring, girls taking a leadership role.  It is very powerful when girls talk to girls, they develop a support system and they can identify with what the other is going through.  In addition, we have professional accomplished women to come in and speak, etiquette classes, seminars on communication, sex, drugs, college, and self-esteem.  We volunteer, establish the importance of helping others, being grateful, not selfish and not entitled.

WRI – Where do you see Pretty Smart Girls in the future?

Mioshi – I see us nationally in the school system as a part of the curriculum and after school programs.  If we can instill these values in these girls young we can stop cycle of low self-esteem and no self-worth.  I also see NFL wives embracing the mission, we inherit the responsibility to lead to these girls.  We have been given this platform with the NFL and all it takes is for one of us to step up and raise bar and other will turn toward it and migrate to it!  Together we change a generation, because “Pretty Smart Girls, is not a statement it is a MOVEMENT”

Mioshi and husband Chris live in Texas with their three children.

Pretty Smart Girls

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