DEAR TEENAGE GIRLS:
‘You are more powerful than you even realize’
Dear teen girls,
I don’t need to tell you how strong you are — you already know.
I don’t need to tell you that popular culture reveres and sexualizes you at the same time as it mocks and degrades you. You operate in bodies that are consistently policed at school by dress codes meant to curb the men around you from hurting you, and you are only beginning your lifelong experience of occupying a body that will be politicized no matter what you wish to do with it.
And even though I haven’t been a teenager for well over a decade, I still remember it vividly: feeling hyper-aware and curious, awkward and unstoppable.
It seems as though the rest of the world is just cluing in to what we’ve known all along: Girls run the world.
You are cultural vanguards. In the 1960s, when the entire world was rolling their eyes at Beatlemania, you were propelling the band to superstardom. And your parents probably still think they’re the best thing since sliced bread.
You are linguistic innovators, decades ahead of everyone else; Shakespeare has nothing on you. You are economic powerhouses, social media kingmakers, political figureheads and social policy leaders.
Frankly, teenaged girls today are a million times more engaged and resilient than I was at that age. Maybe it’s the interconnectedness of social media, or maybe it’s just the slow march of progress, but looking at the leaders we have today, from Rowan Blanchard to Rookie Magazine to Amandla Stenberg and Teen Vogue, your generation is redefining what a young feminist ethic looks like.
All we had to work with was Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Spice Girls (more problematic than woke, as you’d maybe say).
And maybe the general population is just noticing this. Maybe all the “Oh wow,
I have no doubt that you will respond with the same thoughtfulness and energy and resilience that you have already been forced to adopt.
Teen Vogue is writing about politics?” think pieces will go away as the realization finally dawns on the rest of the world — you have got this.
And so now, as your joy and your youth and your love for having fun and screaming along to Ariana Grande’s music at the top of your lungs comes under attack by some insignificant man, I have no doubt that you will respond with the same thoughtfulness and energy and resilience that you have already been forced to adopt.
You are more powerful than you even realize right now, so don’t stop loving the things you love and sharing your energy and power with the rest of the world.
And to the “olds” like me: Pay attention to these girls.
Watch how they respond to this tragedy exacted upon them and their community with grace and compassion and use it as an opportunity to learn how to respect them and their culture, and not treat them with the same derision we usually heap on them.
In a few months, you may forget about this attack — we all know how the news cycle can be — but these girls will still be doing the hard work they’ve been doing all along.