Hillary Rodham Clinton — I never thought that it would come to the point wherein I felt compelled to use your name outside of historical context, but your recent acts of self-promotion (beyond the pride you normally display) are simply unnerving. The DNC was simply horrifying all around. From the well-meaning socialist finally bowing down to your questionable nomination, to announcing the woman who cheated people out of their votes and divided the Democratic party as a figure in your run for office, to Elizabeth Warren, a prominent figure of your campaign who complains about inequity while her former job at Harvard put her in the 1 percent your party demonizes, to your oratorically eloquent husband who ignored the Lewinsky incident completely (when it could have honestly been a thing that would humanize you), to your VP pick who is realistically one of the most vanilla politicians on the planet. While all of these things are mind-numbingly painful to watch, the most astonishing thing was not the inconsistency, dishonesty, or the lackluster personalities of the people around you. No Hillary Rodham Clinton, the most astonishing thing is the notion that your nomination is somehow significant to me as a young woman, that somehow I'd been marginalized by a ghostly sexist system and that your nomination proves some sort of progress.

Let me just tell you that I never needed your nomination to be driven towards accomplishing my goals. I never needed your nomination to go out and get a job. I didn't need your nomination to get a full tuition ride to college, and I certainly don't need your nomination to involve myself in the political process. No Mrs. Clinton, your nomination just shows how regressive and discriminatory we have become as a society. Your nomination teaches America's youth that you can be negligent, irresponsible, morally abject, and flippant towards your promises, and as long as you have the right chromosomal structure it is okay to disregard the corruption in your record. That is definitionally sexist. The “glass ceiling” you busted feels to me, as a woman, to be more of a small window.

You claim to stand for the everyday citizen and the average woman. Let me just tell you, women in America are strong, independent, hard-working, and honest. We don't see a need to cheat our way around the system because being trustworthy is a principle that we honor. We don't associate ourselves with people for their political prowess without taking into account their character, and we certainly don't need to rig the system in order to be successful. So stop implying that you represent me, or any woman. You don't. You represent the crony capitalist principals and governmental irresponsibility that will be and are becoming a detriment to this nation that I love. I am genuinely frightened and frustrated at the thought of your presidency and the impact that it will have on the generations to come. I pray that one day I will not have to explain to my children why this was the best that we could do for another “monumental” first.