Today at the beach, a family sitting next to me was teaching their youngest daughter how to swim. She had on a bright yellow life jacket that was clearly a size too big and was moving her arms more straight out to the side that in front of her. As she was kicking seaweed was touching her feet and the little girl began to squeal, begging her mother to take her out of the water. Instead of calmly telling the girl that it was only seaweed touching her, the mother began to scold the girl, repeating, “Stop being such a girl! Why are you such a girl?”

Two years ago, the brand Always released an ad where they asked some older women, boys and men to show examples of running, throwing, and fighting “like a girl.” Each person ran clumsily, barely moved their arms to throw, and kept their arms close to them, turned their faces and would barely swing out an arm to fight. They then asked the same of young girls. The young girls ran their hardest and swung their fists as hard as they could. What this showed was that the negative connotation of “like a girl” is learned. The young girls had no idea that doing something “like a girl” would be a bad thing. They’ll learn that, as they get older.

That little girl at the beach is learning it now. Her mother telling her to stop being such a girl is putting into her mind at the age of probably five, that being a girl is something she has to be ashamed of.

In a slam poem titled “9 Things I Would Like To Tell Every Teenage Girl,” Melissa Newman-Evans says “If we do not hold each other up, no one else will.”

I particularly liked this quote because nine times out of 10 it's not the boys, it’s other girls pointing out each other's flaws, tearing each other down and not supporting each other. This is a call to support your sisters. How can women as a whole make any progress when we don’t support each other? Only 34 women have ever been governors, compared to 2,319 men (according to "Miss Representation," a 2011 documentary). Women don’t have even close to equal representation even though we make up about 50 percent of the population. If women started supporting each other and came together imagine the possibilities. We have such low self-esteem in ourselves that we brush off comments and actions that should be startling and offensive.

Lee Rodgers, a talk show host on the radio once said, “Look at these ugly skanks who make up the female leadership of the Democratic Party.”

Michael Savage, talk show host on “Savage Nation” once said, “You know that ugly hag Madeleine Albright, you remember her, a psycho? She was the secretary of state under Clinton, you remember, like a fat moron.”

This is not only disgusting because of their language but because these are women in power whom they’re talking about. They’re making breakthroughs and history and yet they’re torn down because they’re women. Do you think either of these men would use such terrible language if they were talking about a man?

We need to be proud to be girls. We need to change what “like a girl” means into something of strength. We need to hold each other up. If we don’t who will?