More Girl Power pls!

What a wonderful day. A day that is dedicated to being a woman and everything that means. No matter what shape, size, colour, origin or religion, we can all celebrate how cool it is to be a woman. We've never had it so good in the history of 'civilised' society. (Side note; The Ascent of Women on Netflix is amazing and it shows that in some of the first groups of people, there was complete gender equality, as men and womens' contributions were seen as the same) However, I think we can do better.

There are amazing individuals and groups that have been dedicated to girl Empowerment longer than I have been alive, so I am but offering my very humble story.

My story of girl empowerment or feminism or whatever you would like to call it started off with my parents. As a little girl I was encouraged to get outside and explore, play with a variety of toys and be my own person. My parents tried to stop gender stereotypes before it was a'thing'. I was taught to have my own thoughts and opinions, and believe me I did. I was always slightly different to the girls at school who had more barbies than a child could ever want or need. But as much as my parents did to encourage me to be an independent person, guess who I wanted to be like? Yep...the Barbie girls. I loved pink and dolls and pretty things which is no bad thing but it must have been a little frustrating for my parents who were not Disney people.

This hideous theme of pink carried on for years and my mum didn't really know what to do with 'that girly stuff'. There were so many tears when I had to have practical school shoes and not pretty ones. (Who else can relate?) But underneath the pink everything there was a little girl who loved a million other things like tree climbing and muddy puddles and castles which I wish I could have shown more.

As I grew up I couldn't help but find my true self bit by bit and that meant I didn't exactly fit in, because I wasn't being a carbon copy of someone else. I loved to read and I loved to know things, but at secondary school that means you get teased. And as a little 12 year old I didn't have the self security of myself that I have now. Horrible people, 1. My self esteem, 0.

Skip a few embarrassing teenage years,  I was procrastinating as usual and I started reading all these articles about feminism that I agreed with so much. Yes, of course we should have gender equality. It's so obvious. But then I looked for more information and I came across negative comment after negative comment about how feminists are crazy women who have become so radical that they are now sexist themselves. When I started talking about feminism at school people made those negative links as well.

But I am an independent woman who knows better than to listen to those voices. I am a proud feminist who believes that we need to help both men and women for a better future for everyone.
I have come full circle and now I know that I can love fashion and beauty as well as reading, learning and being outdoors. It's okay to be me and it's okay to be you.

 Being an empowered woman comes with some fun perks like confidence. I love having confidence even if it just means that I have the confidence to do little things by myself which opens up a world of possibilities and fun. But don't get me wrong, I still get self conscience and worry about things but that is okay when you have loving people to support you!

Something I heard and love is that 'empowered women empower women'. I love spending time with my girlfriends who are all amazing women in their own right which inspires me to believe in myself. We can all be girl bosses.

But very importantly being empowered allows you to see the problems in the world and it makes you stand up and listen and then speak out. We can all do it especially when issues are constantly having light shone on them with campaigns like 'Times up' and 'Me too'.

Girl power takes time but its pretty cool in my opinion when we get rid of that girl on girl crime and surround ourselves with empowered people.

 I wanted to mention some amazing people who have helped empower me.

•My Mum has taught me how to be independent. I know I can rely on myself which makes me feel pretty sassy.
•My Dad taught me to have my own thoughts and opinions and that you don't need to follow the crowd.

•My Sister has taught me that you have to love yourself, because it will be a lifelong romance.

•My Boyfriend's Mum has taught how to be a strong woman who doesn't need to take sh*t from anyone.

•My Boyfriend has taught me that I can do anything I set my mind to. (He is a fantastic poster boy for feminism)
•My Auntie has taught me that it is always right to speak out against what is wrong in our society for a better future. 

So I think in order to celebrate Interntational Women's day and gender equality we need some more girl power and to work hand in hand with men. Lets not preach to half the sky.