Dear Teenage girl,
In a world that tells you to feel small, be quiet and don’t talk out of turn you need to make a change.
The world teaches us to shrivel and slouch, let the grown ups speak because your voice echoes too loudly across the room. You’ve been made to feel as if your value as a human is tied to the pleasure you give others, whether you’re a good daughter, a good sister, a good student. If we lack in any of these our value is decreased and we are tossed aside because our failures hold more weight than our successes. We don’t have room to grow when perfection is expected of us.
Perfection in academics, perfection in emotions, perfection in relationship, morality, ambition, beauty. Things that are not in our control. I am allowed to skip and sing when joys fills my heart, I am allowed to grieve without shame and I am allowed to lash out and scream in anger because my emotions are not “too much” my emotions should not be dismissed and classified as irrational and unruly.
We are allowed to walk confidently in our skin without worrying about comments on our weight, race, age. Others walk around carefree with these same features yet we are the ones being mocked for the softness on our stomach, our bare faces that have been deemed ugly, and our young bodies, bodies far from maturity being turned into objects of ridicule because we have not yet grown into what the world demands.
Us girls are judged like adults yet still treated as children, why does the world think we should grow up faster, learn things quickly? We’re taught to pit ourselves against each other, fight for the approval of others, tear each other down, so we can build ourselves up. We are so used to doing this we don’t realize as we get older we begin implementing these same practices we fought against onto young girls.
What I want to do after writing this, is to make a change. I want to encourage these girls to go out and make a difference. I want to tell you all that your voice carries weight and silencing it does more harm than good. You don’t need to dim your light to let others shine, share that space with them and stand tall. Because you are a powerful, beautiful young woman and you are allowed to take up space.
Kossy Akaeze
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