Ever since I was young, I've been playing video games. My first console was a Nintendo Gamecube, and it sparked my love for gaming. When I was that age, I didn't know that one day I would be getting stereotyped and judged every time I told somebody I was a gamer just because I'm female.

What I've noticed over my years of gaming is that people hold stereotypes about female gamers. People still assume that girl gamers are rare, but that's not the case (at least not anymore). According to The Guardian, 52 percent of all gamers are female. Does this surprise you? It surprises me. Even though I have been gaming my entire life, I often think that I'm part of a minority.

About six years ago, I started playing games online on my Xbox 360. I thought it was cool I could connect to my friends and play with them. But having an Xbox Live account with the name Sophiethegreat attracts unwanted attention. Often I get messages like, "Are you really a girl?" "You're totally fake!" And so on. I would also get random friend requests from men online just because they thought I was a girl. It was then that I realized I was different.

Yes, I am a female gamer. No, I don't use it to get guys. I've talked to guys who don't believe I game and assume that I just do it to pick up guys. The first time I heard this, I was very confused. Then this happened again and again, and I saw pictures on the internet of girls who clearly didn't play video games and used it for profiles to pick up traction. They were giving real girl gamers a bad reputation.

This isn't the only problem that comes with being a girl gamer. With my time here at Southern Oregon University, I plan on using my degree in emerging media and digital art to go into game design. I knew I wanted to pursue this career when I decided to job shadow a woman, Katie Chironis, back during my junior year of high school. At the time, she worked at Microsoft as a game designer. She told me how often her ideas or opinions were shamed because she was a woman. We may be a majority in the gaming world, but women are a minority in the actual gaming industry. This will make it more difficult for me to make a difference when I get a job.

Sometimes I wish I was that little girl who played on her Gamecube without having to worry about what people thought. Now that I've grown, I've been subjected to stereotyping and harassment because of who I am. Gaming is a big part of my life, and it's inspired me. I hope that one day these stereotypes will be challenged by society and maybe people will realize that women are a majority of gamers. We're not so rare after all.