i regularly refer to myself as a “girl.” sometimes people give me weird looks when i do this, other times there’s no apparent reaction. i’ve had sort-of conversations about taking the word girl back. in a sexist, misogynistic, patriarchal, ageist society being a ‘girl’ is a bad thing.

and i’m fucking sick of it. GIRLS ARE THE REAL DEAL. show us some respect!

all the shit we have to put up with. the instances we experience where we are not believed, trusted, taken seriously. all the lies we are told.

i will carry my girlhood with me always. i will always believe my past selves. those girls are always in there. they remind me to be kind. (sometimes i have to remind them that being kind comes in lots of forms and that self-care is a form of kindness too!!) they remind me to call people out without fear (i sometimes tell them, yes… also silence can mean getting out of a shitty situation more efficiently, it can mean blending into the background in order to get away). they remind me to trust that feeling in my belly (and i tell them to forgive themselves when they don’t speak up, that it’s okay to be scared, that they can always ask for help). they remind me that my mother and grandmother and great-grandmother, all of them, were girls too (they tell me to be brave like them. to be unafraid to love, that courage is built on love).

i’ll make it.