I hadn’t heard the word “girlhood” in years before it plagued my TikTok feed this summer around the release of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie. If you asked me a year ago to define it, I would tell you it was simply a thin glue of sorts, uniting women under the ominous umbrella of the patriarchy. That’s no longer the case. Girlhood holds far more weight than it ever has after Barbie garnered an immense box office turnout this July, with women all around the world connecting on a deeper level than ever.
The question then becomes: what does girlhood mean to women now? How do we take pride in this newfound sense of belonging? I’d like to share a few suggestions to participate in “girlhood” on a deeper level.
Look at your childhood pictures
Mine are in a huge box in my basement, separated into different photo albums spanning from around my first birthday to when I was twelve. I pulled these pictures out and sat with them after seeing Barbie. This moment was my version of the TikTok trend of posting a picture of yourself now as the woman who watched the movie versus a picture of you as a child being who actually watched it. I looked at myself, dressed in all pink before stepping on the bus for my first day of second grade. I looked at the little girl hugging her friends on Field Day in Fifth Grade, shining faces of people I haven’t spoken to in over a decade next to mine. I pulled a lot of those pictures out and let them live in a memory box in my room rather than in the basement.
Value your friends
Female friendships are such valuable things, and if there’s anything we can learn from Barbie it’s to hold onto those that understand you tight. I have never kept up with my friends more than I have this summer and I feel far more fulfilled after prioritizing those relationships. There is nothing like a bond between two women that understand and hold love for one another.
Tell your mom, your grandma, or any mother-figure in your life “thank you”
If you saw the movie, you remember when the mother of the Barbie-opposed daughter breaks down. These women are the ones carrying the weight of the world. I personally hugged my mom a lot tighter after seeing the movie with her, because we found something we very personally shared: our girlhood.
Girlhood is an abstract idea, but one that brings women together like nothing has before. We are nurturing our inner children, forming unspoken connections, and living truthfully supported by the girls around us. We owe a thank you to Greta Gerwig and an even larger thank you to Barbie.