Hi, I’m Bria Morgan

 When I was younger, I lived in blissful ignorance of gender roles and expectations. I never wore skirts or dresses because it made it harder to run around on the playground. I wore pink just like I wore green, or blue, or any other color.

Then I started to hear and digest what others would say around me. "She'll want to wear dresses when she gets into boys" or "I need two strong boys to carry this stuff".

I began to grow resentful of this kind of language, as I should have. I stopped liking the color pink and despised it instead. I wanted to avoid anything and everything that could be considered "girly". I even felt superior to everyone who still decided to be "girly" and wear dresses.

This feeling was where I went wrong.

Feminism is not about avoiding traditional femininity. Feminism is about empowering women to do whatever they want, whether that be playing dress-up or football. I have seen too many instances of when my friends and I put ourselves down.

We were always too fat, too tall, too short, too skinny, and never enough. It seemed that everyone wanted to be everyone else. It became normal -- and expected -- for me to put myself down.

Needless to say . . . I didn't like it.

That was when I had an epiphany. We did not have to be our own worst critics. We could treat ourselves with the same empathy and consideration we give others. We could give ourselves compliments instead of repeating the same old self-deprecating jokes. We could love pink again.

We can rearrange the power back to ourselves.

Cuz girls will be girls.