What Growing Up As A Girl Sounds Like

I have grown up hearing many things about what it means to be a girl from family members, teachers, strangers, coworkers (all typically men). Everyone believed they have a voice in what a girl should do and how they should act. The following is a poem containing things I have heard from those in my life and what women close to me have also grown up hearing:

Growing up a girl

Sounds like excuses for why it is okay

because he is a boy

And boys will be boys 

Growing up a girl

Sounds like being silenced 

By men talking over you 

And your opinion never matters as much as a males’

Growing up a girl 

Sounds like being told what to wear

Or else you are asking for it

And that your shoulders are too distracting

Growing up a girl 

Sounds like being catcalled from the age of 10 

Being told that’s just what men do

And that we should be wary to walk alone

Growing up a girl 

Sounds like you are not strong enough

That you cannot play sports

That you should go back to the kitchen

Growing up a girl 

Sounds like you have to work 10 times harder

To be recognized 

But then you are only good for a woman 

Growing up a girl

Sounds like since you are a girl you are less than

That it’s an insult to throw like a girl

That acting feminine is a weakness

Growing up a girl

Sounds like everyone had something to say about your body

Men controlling what you can do to it

And voting on issues that they would never face

Growing up a girl

Sounds like being told you can’t

Can’t do that since you are a lady

Can’t be physical or that’s too masculine

Growing up a girl

Means becoming a woman

And a woman is strong

A woman is caring and loving through hatred

Women face challenges head-on

Women take all that is against them and turn them into their superpowers 

Women are mothers, sisters, allies, soldiers, doctors

Women are whoever claims the label

And are proud to wear that label

Throughout my life, I find we are always told it is a negative thing to be a woman and that we have to act in certain ways to be “lady” like. Growing up and hearing all of this always made me feel lesser, yet now that I am a young adult and still growing I realize every challenge we have to face just makes us work that much more and be that much stronger.

• Growing up girl women