When I was a kid I had many friends. Boys and girls.
We lived in the same neighbourhood.
There was nothing I loved more than playing outside with them.
But unless there were other girls with us too, I could not go outside with only the boys. Back then I did not understand how wrong that was. People would say that it was some rule that protected my "reputation", whatever that meant.
I really hoped someday something would change.
To this day, I think the mistreat of women has not gone away, it has only changed shape.
We sometimes fail to comprehend the incredible creation that is women.
We are thought of them as "fragile" or "weak".
From birth we are taught to live by others.
To care for what others say about us, who we are friends with, what we can and cannot do, most importantly who we can become.
We grow up watching everything being denied to us, the explanation is always the same "because he is a boy".
All of the fairy tales we knew were those of the hero saving the princess.
All of the qualities that made a hero to us were the ones used to describe a man.
But my hero is different.
My hero is the woman who knows her own value is not dependent on anyone else.
The woman who refuses to let the judgement of others interfere with her goals is my hero.
The woman who is her own saviour is my hero.
The woman that breaks all the stereotypes is my hero.
She is my hero.
I will raise my daughter to the stories of the heroes she should look up to.
To the stories of the women before her who made it possible she grow up to be anything she dreams of being.
