To the girls who get excited when the Sephora ads come in the mail. To the girls who could watch "Pride and Prejudice" and "Confession of a Shopaholic" on repeat. To the girls who get bored at football games and way too excited about fall clothes.
To the girly girl:
Be you.
With the current trend in feminism and the way society looks at women, we often think that we have to be strong, independent and almost masculine women. The woman-to-be is the DIY women, and I don't mean crafty, I mean do-it-all-by-your-big-girl-self. It is as if losing the game to the guys is losing out identities as women.
What if we don't want to play the game? What if we simply want to be ourselves?
Lately, I've felt as if I needed to tone down my girly side. After all, I don't want to intimidate girls or make the guys laugh. I don't want to make girls feel like they need to dress up like me, and I don't want to make guys want to stop talking to me because I say the word "fabulous" in every conversation. I love dressing up, but I don't want that to become my identity. I could talk all day long about chick flicks and fashion, but does this make me shallow?
Can I still be me if I'm not so girly?
What I'm discovering, though, is that being girly is a part of me. Dressing nicer than I need to dress, watching cat gifs until I cry of happiness and baking cupcakes makes me feel like me — and I don't need to tone that down. I don't need to apologize to others that I look cute more often than not. I don't need to quiet down when I start getting excited about the next Disney movie.
Neither do you.
So when the world tells us girly girls that we need to toughen up or get back into reality, tell yourself what Jess from "New Girl" said to her negativity:
"I brake for birds. I rock a lot of polka dots. I have touched glitter in the last 24 hours. I spend my entire day talking to children. And I find it fundamentally strange that you're not a dessert person. That's just weird, and it freaks me out... And that doesn't mean I'm not smart and tough and strong."
With all of this said, part of being strong and confident in ourselves manifests itself in sensitivity towards others. Just because we are unashamedly girly doesn't mean that we judge others or act haughty. Even though we don't like to get our hands dirty, it doesn't mean that we should let dirty speech come out of our mouths. To live securely is to make others feel the same way, and if that means talking about football or four-wheelers, let it be. We don't need to shout out our preferences at every moment. Do girly girls proud by living and speaking humbly (not to mention fashionably).
So let's stand tall in our high heels and pink lipstick. Let's show the world that strong women are sometimes the most girly of them all. Let's be ourselves and not feel the need to tone our personalities down. Are you ready?
