She is not a feminist killjoy. She is not some radical liberal. She is a girl with opinions that differ from the people around her, a girl with an open-mind stuck in a closed-minded society.

Most importantly, she is a girl who speaks her mind.

To begin, my input on our next living location was never taken into consideration since I was only ten and my dad thought it would be a great idea to move back to Tennessee. Now, this does not sound so bad. However, I had been living in Spain for the past four years and never experienced the amount of bigotry I did once I was living in Tennessee. I ended up not being apart of the so-called "popular" crowd since I was not one of the girls who would zip her lips and look pretty to impress boys.

I never realized how cruel people could be until they turned my outspokenness into something laughable by making a joke out of everything I said. Such as a fellow peer calling me anonymously on the phone and stating, "So, I heard you like killing babies," and then proceeded to make cruel jokes about my opinion on abortion.

On that note, to the girls that speak their mind,

the best way to handle people who do not feel the need to give you common courtesy is to focus on your goals, to remember why you continue to speak your mind, and to forgive the people. Throughout life, you may experience people chasing you with Trump signs or people outcasting you because being outspoken is viewed as a weakness. However, you were made to be difficult to forget and not easy for the mind to follow so you can make a difference in life.

It is rare to be made to be difficult to forget and not easy for the mind to follow because many people are unaware of how much power they have behind the works they speak and the actions they take. Each word you speak affects someone differently and can cause a ripple effect that leads to more listeners and more people that will help make a difference.

So, girls keep speaking your mind.

People are going to tell you that you talk too much, that any claims you make are rubbish because you are a woman and women do not know what they are talking about. Do not listen to them. Do not give react to them. Instead, continue to provide them with the facts that back up your claim. You do need to provide them with common courtesy, despite the radical idea that women have no idea what they are talking about because you never know how their words will affect your thoughts.

While you should oppose the outright expression of bigotry, you also need to consider your actions. For instance, I was chased with a Trump yard sign around "Celebrate Munford" because of the mere fact that I expressed how I disliked President Trump declared approach to the border crisis, tax cuts, and women's rights. Now, instead of giving the person chasing me with the sign a big reaction like they wanted, I ignored them, and it stopped. If I had given them a big reaction, my opinions would have been invalidated and turned into something laughable. Since I did not react, I refuted his claims because his actions showed that his true intentions were to shame me, rather than wanting to make a difference.

Silence can be much more powerful depending on how you use it.

To the girls that speak their mind, I want you to remember a quote by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich:

Well-behaved women seldom make history.