Girlhood is confronting the parts of you that you think are too dark for anyone to love. - Nikita Gill

I carried salt in my pockets. I pried nails out of the floorboards. I built a world where no one could keep up with me. I made a myth out of myself in my youth and spent the rest of my life trying to claw my way back.

How dare you tell me 'I am not like most girls,'
when those 'girls' you refer to
are my sisters and mothers, my friends,
the very solace and the kindness I have sought
when the worst things in my life have happened?

How dare you assume
I should take that as a compliment,
and beam at you like it is praise
when you are alienating me
from the very core
of my proudly female being?

There are a thousand ways
to tell me you love me,
and making my sisters small
to make me big
isn't one of them.

Tell me you love me, but not because I am different.

Tell me you love me, just because you do.

They won't tell you about how Red Riding was the wolf
and Snow White went back to kill the queen.
Or that Cinderella's step family mysteriously
disappeared after she became queen.

They are afraid to let you know that Aurora woke up screaming
because a strange man was kissing her without her consent.
Or how Ariel had no problem killing the two timing prince
and restoring herself to the sea.

The fairy tales we should tell
our daughter should be about strong women with real flaws
and incredible qualities.

Let's raise girls who don't just wait to be rescued,
but take destiny in their own hands
and charge to battle dragons and their enemies.