When we walked through the doors of BlogHer 2005, we were immediately drawn to Liz Henry. With her razor-sharp intellect and warm, engaging personality, we quickly felt a kinship with Liz. She inspires us to speak up, and to try to make a difference. This amazing, prolific blogger is not shy about sharing her opinions on everything and anything. From her blog on translation, her regular contributions on The Huffington Post, her mommyblog, and her many other projects, Liz makes no apologies, and takes no prisoners. Her well-reasoned, passionate discussions are peppered with humor, and always thought-provoking.

In the wake of hurricane Katrina, Liz packed her laptop and her determination off to the Astrodome. She worked day and night to help connect families, and her entries from Texas inspired Grace Davis to create her hurricane relief blogs.

Liz's blog Badgermama is a wonderful glimpse into her family life. Her creativity and zeal for parenting is wonderful. Her readers are treated to wonderful storytelling, photos and the occasional rant. We marvel at Liz's enthusiasm and energy. In fact, we wish we could bottle it.

We put out a call to some of Liz's fans, and they flooded our inbox with praise for this one-of-a-kind mama.

Squid Rosenberg loves the humor and the humanism behind Liz's posts:

Liz is the person who got me blogging, and has always been one of my role models for unapologetically championing both parenthood and feminism. She has a goofy, wicked wit but is a total softie at heart, and constantly demonstrates a pure (though slightly neurotic) devotion to humanism. I love that she punctuates her posts with photos of her cutest underwear. I read her blog regularly for the same reason I go to church: to remind me of those principles and ideals I hold dear, and why they are worth the fight. And also to see what's going on in her daily life, as our kids no longer have intersecting schedules.

Mary Tsao Mom Writes finds inspiration in Liz's mad skills:

I met Liz of Badgermama at BlogHer 2005, but I didn't really get to know her until I spent a weekend with her at the writing retreat Woolfcamp, hosted by Grace Davis of State of Grace. Liz is amazing and easy to adore; she's truly a wonderful person to know. She is my feminist mommyblogging hero, and I learn something new every time I read her blog. She loves her son and she treats him like a person with a brain, which is refreshing to me. The values she is teaching Moomin through her love, support, encouragement of his reading and gaming, and by providing him a loving family life is evident in everything she writes on badgermama; she's a mommyblogger to emulate for many reasons.

Karen Rani is inspired by Liz's perspective and creativity:

Liz is one creative mama. She has more blogs than I have pairs of socks, but her writing doesn't suffer. She manages to write both quality and quantity, consistantly, tackling topics of interest, controversy and viewing the world in a new and fresh perspective from angles I've never thought of. In person, Liz is fun, witty, intelligent and simply amazing. Liz for president!

Jenijen from Not Calm (dot com) is another lucky-duck mama who has the chance to hang with Liz in person:

I first met Liz at BlogHer in 2005, and I've been lucky to get to see her every now and then over the last year and a little bit. She is such an amazing woman, from her work in the Astrodome (and back at home) in the months after Hurricane Katrina, to her awesome parenting which celebrates nature AND comic books! I really enjoy reading her blogs, and admire her passion, her smarts, and her fearlessness. Yay, Liz!!

Koan Bremner expresses Liz's impressive impact with eloquence:

I don't think it's possible to form a representative picture of Liz from her work in any one outlet. As her Huffington Post profilesays, she is "massively multiblogular" - and she's made it into an art-form! I think that's a double achievement - she is so versatile and engaging a writer that she *can* appeal to such a range of readers. More
impressive to me, though, is how she manages her online personas - or rather, how much of her complete persona she reveals in a particular outlet. There is no subterfuge or deception going on, she is simply adept at blending the relevant strands of her personality and interests into whichever outlet she is addressing.

For me, Liz's defining moment was her blogging as a relief worker, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Her compassion towards those she worked so hard to help - coupled with her resolve to help them, whatever
obstacles were placed in her (and their) way - was truly inspirational.

We love Liz. Her readers already love Liz. Be sure to come read our interview with Liz for later this afternoon - you love her, too!