Palm down. Spread your fingers. I stare at my bright red acrylic nails as my pink boxing wrap encloses my palm and laces between my fingers. I stretch out my hands but they are quickly hidden by big red boxing gloves—the adrenaline kicks in. ACDC is blasting as I nod to my coach and head to the bags for warm up. Speed bag reminds me why I woke up at the ungodly hour of 6 A.M., this is where I feel empowered.

My dad has been training with Tod Drespling at his boxing company, Gym Rat, for years and I have sporadically tagged along since I was eight. But this year, I've been going weekly and the more often I went, the more I realized how therapeutic boxing is. I'm not quite sure the science behind it, but there's something about hitting a bag for thirty minutes and sparring for the remaining hour that makes me feel like a freaking queen. As my coach is yelling out different combinations, I let go the stress of the week with every punch. Tod yells at me to keep my arms up in the ring and my concentration takes over. I think of everything: from the guy who decided to piss me off that week, all the way to the stress of my future career. Not only is it an amazing workout, it's empowering as hell. When I go the full three times a week, I have so much energy—I feel light. I am less stressed and angry, but more calm and confident. Let me be perfectly clear, I am not claiming to be Ronda Rousey in the slightest. I mean I just started getting my form down. However, that's not the point. The point is is that every woman should feel at least once a week the way I feel when I box: a badass.

Women should consciously take time out of their week to feel confident. I'm not saying it has to be boxing but it should be something that is therapeutic and empowering. Working out, dance classes, pilates, anything that will make you feel like the #yasqueen you are. A physical outlet produces endorphins that help with depression and anxiety, which are sadly very common mental health issues in our generation. Having the everyday stress of class, work and relationships can make anyone a bit anxious, but social media is an entirely different beast that can wreck a person's self-esteem. I've noticed that girls, myself included, focus too hard on how we portray ourselves to society. Instagram likes, Snapchat and That Frat Boy With The Dad Bod are what most of my conversations consist of. The need to act perfect, look perfect and BE perfect is what most of my thoughts consist of. So how do you stay sane in a society where everyone expects you to be perfect so you can marry The Frat Boy With The Dad Bod and have 2.5 kids with a successful career by the age of 28? Take a break from society's expectations. Instead, focus on what you want and what makes you a badass.

I feel like these basic needs of security and self-love are extremely lacking in my gender and its more than disheartening. I hate how common it is for a girl to feel like she needs a relationship to feel validated. I think it's sad how easy it is for girls to be super critical of one another because of their own insecurities. And what really makes me cringe? The negative connotation toward women who are trying to harness their power. The amount of smirks and "that's cute" I've gotten from explaining that I box for a hobby is just so uncool. In a perfect world, we would all be supporting one another. But I think it's important to remember that putting others down, in general, is just an A-hole move. So don't do it, be better than that and congratulate Brenda on her new found love for Zumba.

Loving yourself isn't an option, it's a need. It's a need for our gender as a whole. Women need to learn the true value of self-love and self-care before we see any progress in society. I mean it's not going to close the wage gap or get Travis to understand the true definition of feminism, but it could make a woman feel more confident walking alone down the street. Ever since I started boxing, I have realized that I don't feel the need to lie to a pushy boy at a bar. I used to lie and say I have a boyfriend because I didn't want to deal with the confrontation. This new found confidence has given me the power to tell him the truth—I'm not interested. And now, when some gross guy I avoided eye contact with took it upon himself to "compliment me" in a crude, violating way as I'm trying to walk to work, I give him the finger instead of lowering my head and walking faster. (Disclaimer: boys, catcalling is unnecessary and not at all flattering. And besides, I know I look good, I didn't ask for your validation, Chad.) My boxing outlet has helped me find the power within myself to tell these boys to shove it. To tell society to shove it. Empowerment is an amazing feeling, and it's helped my mental health overall. I feel like a new person and I love it.

Women need to start loving themselves. Simple as that. So, take a moment from society's expectations at least once a week and work within yourself. Women are badasses by nature, I mean we were the lucky ones chosen to produce life. But it's time that society and ourselves realize how powerful a woman can be, and by doing that, women need to start believing it.