Getting called the Cool Girl by a guy is the compliment of all compliments. It means you’re the 'ideal’ girl that every guy wants. The Cool Girl challenges nothing and is down for anything. Football all day? Obviously! Burgers at every meal while maintaining a skinny waist and double D’s? No problem. Date night with the guys downing beers instead of dinner and a movie? How could any girl turn that down. Crying? Please, I’m not a baby. Nicholas Sparks? Lame. Ambition and drive? Not if it makes you feel like any less of a man.

The Cool Girl is low maintenance, go-with-the-flow, and likes whatever you like. She’s the ultimate 'guys girl,' and the girl every other girl wants to be. I’d be lying to you if I told you that I never tried to be the Cool Girl. I’d be lying if I told you I’ve never tried to convince guys I’m 'low maintenance' by refraining from getting mad at things that I definitely had every right to be mad about. I’ve agreed to watch football even when I have absolutely no idea what’s going on. I’ve listened to guys call their girlfriends needy and join in on how annoying those kinds of girls are. I’ve pretended to like the cheap beer a guy handed me even though with every swallow I died a little inside at the thought of how many hours it would take for me to burn all those calories in the gym tomorrow in order to maintain the perfect body all guys want.

None of this means that girls are always pretending to enjoy things that guys typically like. Trust me, I love a good hockey game and an even better cheeseburger. And 99.9% of the time I will choose that over a showing of "The Notebook" and a salad. But, I also like being taken out on a date, having my car door opened for me, and given attention. And I don’t think anyone should ever consider those three things to be 'high maintenance' or 'uncool.' It’s important not to hide parts of yourself in order to attract someone else.

The problem with the Cool Girl mentality is that girls are pretending to be the girl that they think all guys want. Maybe all guys do want that, maybe only some do. We as girls are so focused on what guys think of us rather than what we think of ourselves. We are so caught up in what guys want us to want and what will make them happy rather than pursuing our own interests. We don’t need to have the same passions as guys in order to catch their attention. Or at least that’s not how it should be.

Constantly trying to be the Cool Girl hinders us from being ourselves. It means living without our own ambition but rather in the shadows of someone else’s. I’m not saying that guys are to blame for this unreal expectation of women. The real blame falls on media outlets for creating this image and persona that girls chase after because they are under the impression that it’s what guys want.

When we as girls succumb to this image, we are in turn supporting society’s expectations of the Cool Girl. Being a Cool Girl should mean that you follow your passions without being afraid of success. It should mean being strong enough to be yourself despite society constantly telling you that you aren’t good enough.

We need to hold ourselves to higher standards than society does and stop conforming to other people’s unrealistic expectations. Girls can’t expect society to adopt a new definition of the Cool Girl without first redefining it for themselves.