An Open Letter To All Young Women
Dear Young Women,
The first thing I want to say, is seize the day. Carpe Diem the shit out of life. Whether you are a millennial or a generation X or whatever, it doesn’t matter. We are currently living in a society where we are being told we’re too young and inexperienced to do anything, but equally how everything is our fault. We are the future of this world, whether the adults in control like it or not. So we need to seize it. In our lifetime, there will be so many advances in technology, in science, and in society, so we need to be living in the now.
Throughout your life, I would be surprised if you never once heard someone say you couldn’t do something because you were a girl. I also reckon they used the word ‘girl’, a word described by Mayim Bialik to accurately describe someone ‘between that super narrow age range of five years old, and fifty-five years old’. By being called a girl, if you are in fact over the age of eighteen is super belittling.
You are an adult, you are a woman. A girl is child. When people call you a girl they are generally trying to belittle you, whether or not they realise it. If you were out and saw a man in his twenties or thirties you would probably say ‘hey, look at that man.’ It would be weird to call a grown man a boy. So why is it perfectly acceptable for us, women, to be called girls? We do still live in a patriarchal society. So not only are we being told we are inadequate by the older generations, but also the men in our lives.
Furthermore, I’m sure there are things you will have wanted to wear, people you will have wanted to see, or places you will have wanted to go. People will have held you back. People will have told you that you can’t wear that outfit, or meet that crush and you certainly can’t go to that bar. But why? Why are these people dictating who you want to be? You can seize yourself, you can wear that dress, so what if you get a little tummy roll – it’s your tummy roll. You can meet that eccentric person in the quirky bar. You don’t need to listen to anyone. You’re an adult and your own person. Once you start to believe in who you are, you can be a lot more comfortable with yourself.
We live in a time of self-love, body positivity and feminist movement. It’s a wonderful time to be involved in yourself, young women. You can love yourself like no one else, and love everyone around you as well. We live in a time where you should be bringing people up, not dragging them down. We live in a time where you voice has never been so important. You have a voice, you have an incredible voice with incredible power and it should be heard. It can be a voice of love and happiness, or it can be a voice of frustration. But it should be heard.
It doesn’t matter if you are young or inexperienced. Piers Morgan and his snowflakes have nothing on us. If we are snowflakes, it’s because we’re all different, we’re all exceptionally complex, and we make a cold day pretty darn beautiful. So be a snowflake, and make it snow all over anyone who has anything to say against you. You are female. The future is female.
Love, a WOMAN who’s had enough.
