I’m just a girl. So, I’m just going to be a girl.
Header: A girl’s guide to being just a girl
Are you a hot girl? Are you a smart girl, skinny girl, chubby girl? A funny girl? It doesn’t matter what comes before girl, it always feels like an insult.
Are you even the one answering those questions? Or are you arriving at answers based on external sources?
I always suspected I was cool. I am the youngest of four girls. There is no scenario more primed for comparison than having siblings, let alone, all sisters. Those of us blessed with siblings (I’m not even being sarcastic, I am very much obsessed my sisters), know of “the one.” The smart one, the talented one, the funny one (oh hey!), the skinny one, the chubby one (oh hey again!). Somehow, we allow it to be the norm to think and vocalize absolutes in this way. Even if we recognize on the receiving end it’s not entirely fair and definitely not accurate, we don’t always recognize when we’re perpetuating this cycle.
Why are we giving other people the power to designate who we are and reduce us to “one?” This doesn’t just have impact on the time of your “one” designation, it forms your beliefs on your potential and worth. But I have a secret, that’s only if you let it. It shouldn’t be a secret, that’s why we’re here.
I have held all the titles others had given me: Quiet girl, Loud girl, Fit girl, Fat girl, Boss girl…
It never mattered (I mean yes it did, because it changed how people treated me) what category they put me in, I was still just a girl. It wasn’t until I understood what being just a girl meant for me, that I understood that it was the secret sauce to my success.
I accepted that I was in fact just a girl. Because what more would you need to know, to know I’ve worked harder to learn and achieve all that I have? That I’m an expert communicator, that I approach conflict with empathy and humility, that I have what we refer to as “the feminine urge” which really just means primal intuition. Rejecting society’s definition of girl and embracing the truth how powerful she is…well, that just changed everything.
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