2025 was one of the most challenging years of my life. Navigating my junior year of high school, losing a first love, battling life-threatening illness in my family: all experiences that shocked me to my core and changed me inside and out. I felt myself moving through life as if in uncertain waters, constantly looking for answers that I could not find. In a whirlpool of change, it became more important than ever to lean on the most dependable force in my life: my very best friends.
Forming comfortable and meaningful relationships is one of the most important and fulfilling aspects of adolescence and life in general. I met my best friend in the eighth grade, when she had a crush on my first boyfriend! Even though I felt jealous and even insecure, I noticed her kind heart and understanding from the beginning. Quickly, we both forgot all about him because we had discovered something more powerful than any boy could understand or provide: the commonality of girlhood. During our first conversation, she invited me to her birthday party, and I said, ¨You make me feel so at home.¨ Since then, our relationship has grown in ways I could never have predicted at 13. She is the person that I know will get it, she is the person that I know hears me, she is most importantly the person who I shared my most formative moments with. As girls, it is so common for the patriarchy to encourage gossip and judgment of other women. Through my best friend, I discovered that my most powerful tool could be love for my sisters. Instead of being pitted against each other, we can find community in one another.
Today, the concept of girlhood has allowed me to make a friend out of anyone! From a girl in the bathroom with a cute sweatshirt, to the girl who is late to class and looking tired, to the older woman in the checkout line at the grocery store, all of us have so much more in common than we realize. When we can strip back social stigmas and first impressions, we have the common experience of braiding hair, singing on car rides, and uncontrollable sleepover laughter. Furthermore, when we exist in this space of our own, we can manifest joy from within, rather than from externalities.
To the girl reading this now: look in the mirror and notice your power. Notice the power of all the women who came before you, all those who will be inspired by you, and everyone who surrounds you now. Girlhood pushed me through some of the hardest times in my life and taught me to laugh when tears were the expectation. Girlhood is pervasive in that it will always exist in you, and it can be your superpower!
