While the spoken word world is full of ingenious, well-written women, two women have made more of an impression on me than any others. In just a few short poems, Blythe Baird and Olivia Gatwood are able to capture what it is like to be living as a woman in modern society. From body image issues, to fighting the patriarchy, to battling mental illnesses, these two girls define what it means to be a feminist.

TW: The following quotes cover topics including sexual assault, eating disorders and other mental illnesses.

1. Blythe Baird, 'The Lesbian Reevaluates'

“I’m trying to remind myself that redefining my identity does not make me a liar, but if it does, who do I address my apology to?”

2. Olivia Gatwood, 'At The Owl'

“I work with women who have crowbars for backbones, iron plates on the soles of their feet.”

3. Blythe Baird, 'Pocket-Sized Feminism'

“I want to stand up, but if I do, whose coffee table silence will these boys rest their feet on?”

4. Olivia Gatwood, 'Ode To My Bitch Face'

“Just trying to dance at the party and then someone asks you to smile and the blood begins to riot. Smile, and you chisel away at your own jaw. Smile, and you unleash the swarm into the mouth of a man who wants to swallow you whole.”

5. Blythe Baird, 'Girl Code 101'

“Give me a city where my body is not public property.”

6. Blythe Baird, 'Relapse'

“Wanting to die is not the same as wanting to come home and I’m still trying to remember that.”

7. Blythe Baird, 'Skirt Steak Girls'

“There are not enough seats for both a woman and the joke to fit comfortably in the car."

8. Olivia Gatwood, 'Ode To My Bitch Face'

"How can you sleep pretty when there are four locks on the door and the fire escape feels like break-in bait?"

9. Blythe Baird, 'The Lesbian Reevaluates'

“How my love only counts when you can click on it.”

10. Blythe Baird, 'Girl Code 101'

"17; we know the answers to the questions, but we do not raise our hands."

11. Blythe Baird, 'Relapse'

“Body forgive me. Trying to ignore the caloric calculator in my head is like trying to ignore television subtitles.”

12. Olivia Gatwood, 'Directives'

"Fear is marching next to the enemy and shooting at a stranger.'

13. Blythe Baird, 'Girl Code 101'

“Haven’t we all found the bones of a woman stuck like leftovers between a full man’s teeth?”

14. Olivia Gatwood, 'Directives'

“It is easy to hurt someone who looks just like you, especially when you hate yourself.”

15. Blythe Baird, 'When The Fat Girl Gets Skinny'

"Why would I ever want to stop being hungry when anorexia was the most interesting thing about me?"

16. Olivia Gatwood, 'Manic Pixie Dream Girl'

“Let me apologize when I get caught acting bigger than you.”

17. Blythe Baird, 'Girl Code 101'

“We are the girls taught to survive by using our bodies as Swiss army knives.”

18. Olivia Gatwood, 'Directives'

“When this happens, and you crack, you are not a victim, you are a liability.”

19. Blythe Baird, 'Relapse'

“Recovery is hard work. Not wanting to die is hard work.”

20. Olivia Gatwood, 'Ode To My Bitch Face'

“Bitch face, I don’t blame you for taking the iron pipe from their hands and branding yourself with it; for making a flag out of your body bag.”

21. Blythe Baird, 'Pocket-Sized Feminism'

“How am I to forgive myself for doing nothing in the mouth of trauma? Is silence not an act of violence too?”

22. Olivia Gatwood, 'An Ode To The Women On Long Island'

“The women on Long Island who let their teenage daughters throw parties in the basement while they watch the home network upstairs and keep a bat by the couch in case anyone gets roofied, even if it’s their own son who did the drugging.”

23. Blythe Baird, 'Girl Code 101'

“This is not female privilege; this is survival of the prettiest.”

24. Blythe Baird, 'When The Fat Girl Gets Skinny'

“If you develop an eating disorder when you are already thin to begin with, you go to the hospital. If you develop an eating disorder when you are not skinny to begin with, you are a success story.”

25. Blythe Baird, 'Girl Code 101'

"Male kindness is so alien, we assume it is seduction every time."

26. Olivia Gatwood, 'Ode To My Bitch Face'

“One theory is that you were born this way, but I don’t believe that. You came out screaming and alive and look at you now, look at how you’ve learned to hide your teeth."

27. Blythe Baird, 'Pocket-Sized Feminism'

“There are days where I want people to like me more than I want to change the world.”

28. Olivia Gatwood, 'At The Owl'

“This is Oprah telling us to work. She says, “the economy no longer requires a 15% tip, after all, most of us just cant afford that kind of spending.” As if the people who are dining out on this fabulous Friday evening are being more viciously affected by the recession than those working to fill those bellies.”

29. Blythe Baird, 'The Lesbian Reevaluates'

“I am terrified to be wrong; to see the smirk on all of their faces if I ever dare to wake up one dare like a white flag in a boy’s arms, just as everyone suspected I would.”

30. Olivia Gatwood, 'Directives'

“This is a war between your body and your country, which side are you on?”

31. Blythe Baird, 'For The Rapists That Called Themselves Feminists'

“Everyone is more concerned with how this experience has taken away her assailant’s appetite rather than the survivor’s autonomy.”

32. Blythe Baird, 'When The Fat Girl Gets Skinny'

“I am proud I have stopped seeking revenge on this body.”