And why are we labeling girls AGAIN?
It doesn’t matter where you go, we are surrounded by feminine stereotypes, labels, and outdated notions of what it means to be a girl. Quite frankly, it isn’t just the media, or fashion industry, or men that participate. It can even be ourselves, sometimes blatantly and sometimes blindly. Nongirly was built on the foundation that we can be different. In other words, that we can be something more than the labels and the stereotypes.
I am a mother of a 6-year-old daughter and I just can’t get enough of her stubbornness, her energy, her pure joy in the smallest of things, her random shyness, her interest in dinosaurs (Thanks Dino Dana) and love of mud pies and, YES, her sporadic emotional meltdowns. All of these things are girl.
We are girls and we have no boundaries
Yes, I cry and yes, I am a smart businesswoman. Yes, my emotions run high sometimes, yet I can think logically and make very practical decisions. I am assertive but nice. I like sweats and flip flops and on Friday nights, I like makeup and heels.
Nongirly means you are who you are. You like what you like. You love what (and who) you love.
I took the time to know myself inside and out. I am now comfortable with all of it though I am still a work in progress.
And I want this for my daughter. And I REALLY want this for every daughter. I need you to love you for who you are and how you feel; no matter how “girly”, “high maintenance”, “tomboy”, “intimidating”, “bruh girl”, “one of the boys”, “nerdy” you are.
You are amazing and glorious
And so, the journey of daring to be different starts with NONGIRLY. First, we will bring you stories of women and girls doing incredible things. Then, we will embrace our teenagers just the way they are and give them an alternative perspective on social media. Thirdly, we will support our young professionals to fight the good fight in the world after college. And finally, we will acknowledge the woman we are striving to become; strong, confident, content, successful (in our own minds), unique, and evolving. If we achieve this goal, we won’t need nongirly to describe us. We will just be girls. And we can rule the world.