How Do You Define Yourself?

We’re told, at every turn, how we must define ourselves.

We all know the narrative of the overculture: womxn are supposed to be small, demure, delicate. We're constantly in pursuit of shrinking and forever deferring to someone – anyone – with more authority.

Many of us hold this societal ideal in the lofty turrets of our minds for a lifetime: we remain locked away like Rapunzel, hoping someone will climb the tower and ask us if that ideal is, in fact, who we are or what we want. In the meantime, we accept it and work tirelessly to fit into that mold.

Has it ever occurred to you that you can ask yourself?

If we get down to it – if we sit and get quiet with ourselves – we begin to uncover our own answers.

There's no one to wait on; no one is coming to offer you a better definition of who you are than that which you can craft yourself.

Perhaps you are thin, and quiet, and dainty.

More often, even if you are those things, you are so much more than that.

We’re dynamic. We’re adaptable. We’re nurturing. We’re fucking hilarious. We’re problem solvers. We’re resilient. We’re expansive.

We’re more than our roles and more than our bodies; we’re an unstoppable, infinite, commanding force.

If you don’t embody or ascribe to the convention, what are you?

You get to decide, over and over again. You get to take on the roles in your life that you want to. You get to explore your passions and build your path through this life one step at a time. You can change your mind. You can be uncertain.

But one thing is for sure: the cultural ideal does not do enough to contain you. It does not do you justice. You don’t have to reject it, or mold your life to be strictly a reaction to it. Rather than a rebellious teenager, you are a womxn who knows who she is and for what she stands.

You’re more than an archetype, bigger than a princess imprisoned in distress. Tear the tower down brick by brick and draw your own lines in the sand to claim your territory. Raise your flag proudly, defiantly, powerfully – as only you can.