Starting from a very young age, young girls are brought up to fit a certain kind of stereotype. If they do not meet the requirements, then they are taught to change and alter themselves until they do. This causes self-hate, depression and mental illnesses to these young girls who feel as though they are in a competition with one another. These are the lessons that should be taught to girls instead:
1. Self-Love
Young girls are brought up to believe that in order to look pretty or to feel good about yourself, you need to look or act a certain way. Girls feel that if they aren’t skinny enough, if their hair isn’t shiny or soft enough, if they’re too tall or too short, if they’re too dark or too pale, then they aren’t attractive or worthy enough to have self-love for themselves. Girls need to be taught that no matter what you look like, you are beautiful and special in your own unique way.
2. You don’t need a relationship to be happy
Storybook princesses always have the same gist to the story; the princess is unhappy until she meets her knight in shining armor who makes her whole world better. That’s what young girls are brought up to believe from there on. But, that is not the case at all. No girl needs a significant other in order to feel happy and complete. Happiness comes from within and nothing else. A companion should make a person happy, but their happiness should not reflect upon the other person.
3. Be your own boss
We live in a world where the woman’s job is to stay home in the kitchen and the man is the one who goes out and makes the money. Sure, it’s a great thing if that is what the family wants and decides on, but it’s a complete tragedy when the woman wants nothing more than to be out working, too. Girls need to be taught that if they want to be the CEO of a large corporation, then they have every chance of being so as much as a boy does.
4. Intelligence is sexy
Why act like a bimbo who doesn’t know what left from right is in front of the boys when you can lure them in with high vocabulary? Being smart and working hard in school doesn’t make you a “nerd”. It shows that you care about the more important things in life and that you are capable of being a very successful woman.
5. Being different is perfectly okay
You don’t have to be just like everyone else to fit in. If your opinion, hobbies, or wardrobe is different from the average girl, that doesn’t make you any less of being one. Different is fun, exciting and cool to have around so embrace the fact that you are your own person.
6. High school is not a reflection of who you are
The social status and reputation you have in high school does not define who you will be in life. High school is merely a small portion of your life that you most likely will barely remember 30 years after. Those four years can be a rough, confusing time, but at the end of the day, they are simply just your teenage years that won’t play a big role in who you become later on.
