These days it may seem difficult to find any sense of female empowerment, especially lately.
There’s been crazy laws passed on abortion, and talks of sex strikes (I swear, it’s a real thing you can google it.) It can honestly feel difficult to feel like we have any type of say with all these steps forward and steps back.
So what exactly is female empowerment? I think it’s not extremely definitive, much like self esteem, I think that it can be any type of definition we really want it to be. The definition of female empowerment can change from person to person. I consider female empowerment to be; Confidence, feeling good in your own skin, loving my own body, strength, and vulnerability.
2019 so far for me has been all about feeling good in my skin. I’ve been embracing what I consider to be flaws. My acne, even though it’s annoying I’m learning to embrace it and figuring out how to take better care of my skin. I haven’t totally nailed down an exact skin care routine, but I’m getting there. My hair is also a flaw somedays. My hair is really wavy and thick, and on some days it’s all about doing it’s own thing. It can be frustrating at times, but natural is totally better anyway.
I’m also learning how to love my own body which is a monstrous task if you ask me. A year ago, I absolutely hated wearing shorts, and dresses simply because you could see my scars and possibly a few stretch marks. I was worried that people would judge my scars and my stretch marks and judge the fact that I was wearing shorts with all these abnormalities that were visible on my body. Which if you think about it, It’s totally ridiculous but at the time it was something that mattered to me.
I once saw a quote that said “Whenever you’re in doubt, dress how you want, regardless of what the dress code is.” That quote really stuck with me, because it’s SO true. We should always dress how we want and as long as we feel confident and comfortable that’s all that should really matter.
One of the main reasons why I love interning at Hippie Skin, besides that fact that I’m a sponge absorbing any and all information I can, is because I’m surrounded by so many badass confident ladies. They inspire me everyday with how they carry themselves and it makes me hope that I can be as confident as them someday.
I’m also really inspired by my friends and their sense of confidence that they carry. They help me exude confidence by being their goofy, beautiful, and vibrant selfs. They don’t apologize for who they are and they rarely care about what others think which is an amazing mindset to have and I’m proud of them for displaying it so boldly.
Strength and vulnerability is hard topic to explain. But they are both very okay to express. Expressing my strength and vulnerability is okay, and I always have to remind myself of that. Everyone expresses their strength and vulnerability in different ways, just like how the definition of female empowerment is different to every woman.
One of my favorite podcasters Katy Bellotte said, "We should not be ashamed of the things that make us feminine, we shouldn't need to feel like we should rewire ourselves just because we're feminine. We should embrace it in all of its forms."