International Day of the Girl is right around the corner. I don’t know about anyone else, but it feels like a tough time to be a girl.
We’re exiting the workforce in record numbers. Taking on more work – including that of home and childcare – for less or no pay. Our body autonomy is being challenged. We’re suffering or dying, often at the hands of our partners.
This is bleak stuff, but I have hope. The number of women sharing their stories. Speaking up for one another. Pushing back on status quo.
We all have a part to play. Actions we can take to celebrate girls and build up the next generation of women. One that can continue to move us to a safer and more equitable world.
We can all build hope for the future.
Use your words
Often, girls are complimented first on their looks and boys on their actions or personality.
Next time you engage with a girl, tell her she’s smart, strong, funny, or courageous BEFORE telling her she’s pretty.
Every girl needs to hear that there’s more to her than what she looks like. That there’s power between her ears and value beneath the surface.
Share a lesson
No one is surprised when a girl knows how care for a house or cook a meal. Everyone is surprised when she can fix a car or build furniture.
The greatest gift my father gave me was to teach me things that life would not. How to use power tools and work on a car. How to solder, tile, hang sheetrock, and shoot competitively.
Too often, girls are expected to be the helper, at home and the office. Encourage boys to help and give girls the gift of life lessons the world won’t teach her.
Offer encouragement
Girls’ confidence begins to plummet around middle school. Formerly confident girls get out of sports and retreat in math and science. The world can’t afford for half the population not to contribute.
So encourage the girls you know. Even the ones you don’t. On Every. Damn. Thing.
Encourage them to explore, to take charge of a situation, and to speak up for themselves. To say yes to risks. And say no, loudly, to mistreatment.
Remind them of their capacity for math and science. To play sports, even if it means getting dirty and sweaty. Especially then, because strong is the new pretty.
Lend your voice and support
Let’s encourage girls to be confident. To discover and lean into their strengths.
We need girls to believe anything is possible and that all doors are open to them. Or that they can and should kick those doors open.
Let’s all do our part on this day, and every day, to celebrate girls and remind them to celebrate themselves. To support efforts that build young girls into confident women the world over.
