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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at SLU chapter.

Growing up, I thought that being different meant being better.  I wanted to show that I wasn’t like other girls, mostly because I believed that being intelligent and strong meant rejecting anything traditionally “girly.” For a long time, I distanced myself from pink, convinced it somehow made me less serious, less capable and even less smart. After all, how could anyone take you seriously if you were obsessed with a color that society had labeled frivolous?

Like most women, I was conditioned to believe that pink was for people who didn’t take life seriously—for girls obsessed with glitter, makeup and shopping. And I did not want to be “that girl.” I wanted to be seen as smart, capable and independent. So, I shunned pink and everything it stood for. I thought that distancing myself from it would make me more complex, more interesting, more me.

But here’s the thing: I was wrong. As I grew older, I began to realize how limiting that mindset was. By rejecting pink and other things deemed “feminine,” I was not making myself stronger or more independent—I was playing right into the hands of the very stereotypes I thought I was avoiding. 

Pink is not weak. Pink is bold. Pink is soft and powerful at the same time. It represents a balance between compassion and confidence, between tenderness and resilience. The truth is, loving pink doesn’t mean you are any less capable—it means you are secure enough to embrace what you love without worrying about how it is perceived.

I was falling into a trap of internalized misogyny, thinking that being like other girls was somehow a bad thing. I had convinced myself that loving pink—something society labels as feminine—was a sign of weakness or superficiality. And that is just not true. There is nothing wrong with being feminine, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with loving pink.

I have come to embrace pink not only as my favorite color but as a way of life.  It is a color that challenges the notion that femininity and strength are opposites. Pink says, “Yes, I can be powerful and wear my favorite shade of lipstick too.” Loving pink has helped me realize that I don’t need to distance myself from what is traditionally “feminine” to be respected or taken seriously. Pink is powerful. Pink is bold. Pink is unapologetically itself, and I have learned to be the same.

Now, I rock pink like nobody’s business. From my wardrobe to my Instagram aesthetic, I have thrown myself fully into embracing the color I once avoided. Pink is not just a color, it’s a statement. It is a reminder to live life with softness but also with strength, to blend confidence with compassion, to be bold enough to stand out but tender enough to connect.

Even more importantly,  I have come to see that being “like other girls” is something to be proud of. Other girls are fierce, intelligent, compassionate and they don’t have to give up their love for pink to change the world. It’s not about proving that we’re different—it’s about embracing our commonalities and strengths, however we express them.

So, what’s the big deal about pink? It’s a color that challenges the idea that femininity and power are mutually exclusive. It’s a symbol of reclaiming what has been unjustly trivialized. For me,  it is a reminder that femininity is not something to be dismissed or belittled.  Loving pink does not make me any less capable or intelligent; it means I am secure enough to love what I love, without needing to fit into anyone else’s box.

At the end of the day, pink is whatever you make of it. For me, pink stands for self-acceptance, empowerment and learning to love all parts of myself—even the ones I used to be ashamed of. Pink is a powerful, unapologetic declaration that I can be exactly who I am, without needing to fit into anyone else’s expectations.

I am exactly like other girls. And I could not be any more prouder of that.

So here’s to the power of pink—because sometimes, the most radical thing you can do is embrace what you have been taught to reject.

I'm the editor-in-chief of HCSLU, and a senior English major with minors in Psychology and Communications. I love traveling, poetry, good pasta, and making the world a better place. I was born in Ukraine and currently spend my free time looking for cool hiking spots, trying new foods around Saint Louis, and finding time to work on my first novel.