Happy Women

“Strong, happy, confident girls and women are breaking our culture’s implicit rules that girls should be self-doubting, reserved, timid, and apologetic. Girls who are bold enough to break those rules irk us. Their brazen defiance and refusal to follow directions make us want to put them back into their cage.

Girls and women sense this. We want to be liked. We want to be trusted. So we downplay our strengths to avoid threatening anyone and invoking distain. We do not mention our accomplishments. We do not accept compliments. We temper, qualify, and discount our opinions. We walk without swagger and yield incessantly. We step out of the way. We say “I feel” instead of “I know”. We ask if our ideas make sense instead of assuming they do. We apologize…for everything. Conversations among brilliant women often devolve into competitions of who wins the trophy for hottest mess. We want to be respected, but we want to be loved and accepted even more.”- @glennondoyle Untamed