Yesterday, at school drop-off, I saw a wall of collages called “Profile of Me” hanging outside Mazzy’s classroom. Above is Mazzy’s collage. You’ll notice that along with a unicorn, a doughnut and a puppy is the word WARRIOR in large letters on the bottom.
Well, WARIOR to be exact, but same thing.
This word wasn’t just cut out of a magazine. It was so important to Mazzy that she cut out the letters to form the word herself.
If you look closer and blow up the little red rectangle right above warrior on the left, it says, “RISING” in all capital letters. That’s what my daughter thinks of herself, even when she is at school and I am not around.
She’s a “RISING WARRIOR.”
When I was in fourth grade, I would have cut-out unicorns and magic to represent myself too, but this language of empowerment is something new we are teaching this generation of girls.
When the phrase “the future is female” became popular a few years ago, I loved it and used the hashtag, but I’m not sure I really believed it. Now that my daughter is almost nine, I see the impact of our words on how we are raising our girls. The promise is REAL.
This morning, Mazzy walked into the kitchen as we were watching the news, which happened to be talking about how the Democrats didn’t gain control of the senate. She stood there for a little, taking it in and then turned to me with a look of concern.
“Mom, we’re losing,” she said.
I got down to her eye level and spoke firmly.
“Mazzy, you listen to me. Over 100 women were elected to represent us last night. That is more women winning than ever before in history. We are not losing. We are right on track.”
Obama once told us that change doesn’t happen overnight. Real change happens slowly. So, yes, it is very disappointing that Beto O’Rourke and Terry Gillum didn’t win their Senate races. It is awful that we won’t ever know if Stacey Abrams would have won Georgia if Kemp hadn’t made it so difficult for minorities to vote.
But make no mistake— the Democrats won last night. Women won last night, by a long shot. Every time I looked up at the election coverage, another female Democrat was taking a male Republican’s seat. Republicans may have kept the Senate but Democrats GAINED the house. That is going to make it much more difficult for Trump to continue pushing through his agenda without oversight.
We didn’t win everything, but that’s not how real winning works.
The Republicans have been playing the long game and if there is anything we can learn from them, it is this— DO NOT GET DISCOURAGED. Do not give up on Texas, Florida and Georgia. We have not heard the last of Beto, Gillum, or Abrams.
If anything, the country has just been introduced to some of our new Rising Warriors.
Women and people of color and the LBGTQ community and everyone who believes in basic human decency all just took a huge step forward in the long game.
Love everything about this post!! Mazzy knowing so much about her postive self worth and strenth and POWER! Knowing that you are teaching your girls, (and probably helping guide and empower millions of others through your followers). I love how she added tons of stuff that just screams Mazzy and it flows so beautifully and chaotic all at once! Id love a recreation of what Harlow would do too! 🙂 keep doing you mama!
This is impressive! You’ve done an amazing job informing and involving your girls in the current events of our country, and this is such a great example of how that’s impacting Mazzy’s confidence! As a woman, I understand and related to “The Future Is Female” and “Girl Power” mantras, and believe it is extremely important to find ways to show women across the country (and world!) that our voices matter. I also believe these are great tools for inspiring young girls (who maybe haven’t personally faced situations that older girls and grown women have) to stand up and speak out when they come across sexism, racism, hate, etc. However, as a mother to two boys, there is something deep inside me that is concerned we might swing too far. I know many might be appalled to hear a woman say this, but I sometimes worry my boys will grow up thinking they aren’t part of the future. That the world thinks they are inherently bad and/or are destined to grow up to be men that don’t understand (or care about) issues women face. I think how we raise them will be the key, and I’m not saying we shouldn’t encourage girls and women to stand proud, but there is a part of me that can’t fully get behind the messaging. It’s a weird feeling of internal conflict, knowing the challenges I’ve faced throughout my life and career, and still not be able to get behind “The Future Is Female” message 100%. I guess I just came here to say that I hope we can also say “Children Are The Future” and believe that just as much.
My favorite part of this is the sweet, innocent, beautiful rolled-up dollar bill used as hair in her collage.
May you keep this forever and may she never understand.
When I was in fourth grade, I would have cut-out unicorns and magic to represent myself too, but this language of empowerment is something new we are teaching this generation of girls.
You helped me so much as a writer’s conference newbie with the same advice you just wrote. eleqtriki-