Growing up, I did not have a perfect life. No perfect family with Mom and Dad waking me up in the morning, getting me ready for school. We didn't sit at the kitchen table and eat dinner or get ready for bed with a story each night. My parents were not together, and they never pretended to be. I missed a lot of school as a kid, spent a lot of time alone or with my grandparents. Nothing about my childhood was normal, or ideal.

When I was 10 years old I had moved in with my Nana and Papa. Best idea anyone could have made for me. I was confused at this time and didn't really know what was happening or what was going to happen. One thing that did happen unexpectedly was I no longer had to strive to be a Daddy's Girl like the normal girls in school. All of my friends, their dads were cops, or accountants, even managers at big stores. Their dads were the best! They taught them to ride a bike and watched every soccer game. They were truly the best dads around, and I just couldn't relate.

When my Papa became my guardian, I didn't have to pretend my dad was my world and that he had been the best father around. I didn't have to be alone anymore. I had someone to check my homework and make sure I knew my spelling words. I had someone to sign me up and take me to my gymnastics classes. Check my report cards, attend parent-teacher conferences, and just love me unconditionally. At an early age, I knew I was meant to be a Papa's Girl.

I am still proud of that to this day. My Papa is my rock, my life, my actual saviour. He saved me when I was too young to realize I needed to be saved. He was the one that would be threatening boys for the rest of my life and making sure I am safe. Everyone knows and loves my Papa and growing up he was the one to cot me and my friends around, setting up my birthday parties and making sure I could live the best childhood him and my Nana could provide for me.

If I needed bras or underwear, you best believe he was the one walking up to the register, unashamed to buy them for me. He showed me what unconditional love was through the pain we endured together, the laughs, the endless zoo trips, he did it all. Not only did he do it all, he took on a role my father could not, he showed me that I did not have to be Daddy's Little Girl.

He had raised my mother and was now handed down the stress of caring for me. Making sure I was fed each night, making sure I was at school on time, keeping my grades up, doing sports, hanging out with friends, and just living a normal teenage girl life. This is all any girl could ask for from anyone, no matter who it could be. A mother, a grandparent, an aunt, and uncle, a guardian, even an adoptive parent.

Girls; You all deserve to make your own decisions and be loved and cared for in the way I did after moving in with my grandparents. You do NOT have to be Daddy's Little Girl. You do not have to pretend that your Dad is your world and he is the best one around. You do not have to pretend that he didn't walk out of your life, or he isn't that jerk that just yells at everyone when he comes home from work. You don't have to pretend that you're not a Mommy's Girl, Nana's Girl, an Aunty's Girl, or anything in between. Embrace who you are. Don't pretend to fall in the norm with other girls. Let someone other than your Dad be your saviour. Don't be scared to tell the other girls at school, "You know, I'm just more of a Mommy's Girl ." Open up to being different and NEVER, let anyone tell you who you can and cannot be.