I am a 21-year-old upper-middle-class white girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. I went to private school my whole life and wore a uniform until I got to college. I call my parents to complain when something goes wrong, or when someone hurts my feelings. I was the captain of the cheerleading team and was prom queen and sometimes I do pageants and ride horses for fun. My favorite color is pink, I have a Chihuahua and I'm in a sorority.

So, how many people read that and hate me now? Yeah, I am sure that paragraph made a lot of people cringe. Hate to break it to you, but all of that is true and I can only imagine the sort of assumptions that you made in your head about the kind of person I'm after reading that.

I would too, but recently I have come to blows with the idea of people making assumptions and stereotyping. So many times in my life I have made quick judgments about someone because of the way they look or the way they dressed. We are humans, we have flaws and jumping to conclusions and making assumptions are just a few of those flaws.

One instance that has stuck with me for many years was that in high school I was not a science and math person (I still am not). My abilities fall more towards the writing and literature side. So, when it came to physics, I was a lost cause. I would study for days for a test and answer every question and do the work and still manage to get a zero (takes talent, I know). However, after spending many days studying in advance for a test, the teacher handed it back and his words stung more than seeing the failing grade on the paper. He simply stated, “At least you look good, you can marry well.”

Now, I am sure that he meant this as a joke, but that just takes me back to our human flaw of jumping to conclusions and putting people into stereotypes. I, just like many other girls in college, have been asked, “How is your MRS degree going?” and that is not to be mistaken for a Master in Radioactive Science. What they mean is, do I want to find a husband and spend my days cooking and cleaning and watching reality shows? Well, what I want to say to them is, “ Shhh … 'The Bachelor' is on!”

Just kidding, I say with pride that I am all those things that I listed in the first paragraph, and I do enjoy watching "The Bachelor" and getting my nails done, but I know that none of that can take away from my ambition and dreams. There was a time in my life where I let myself start to believe in these stereotypes, and laughed at people jumping to conclusions about the way that I looked and the things that I liked. I started to think that I could not be successful on my own and that maybe I should just be in college to be “wifed up.”

I wish that I could say I was able to rise above and see how wrong these ideas of social norms were, and that I never let society make me doubt my personal worth ever again. However, that is simply not true, and I was recently reminded of that. I felt embarrassed to believe that I was capable and intelligent. It is scary how one person can push you down in the dirt and shake your soul without even knowing or intentionally meaning to.

I have been reminded that the world is filled with people who will doubt us and will judge us too quickly — people who automatically imagine me as the girl in every dumb blonde joke because I have blonde hair. We all need to be reminded of my mom’s favorite saying, “To assume something will just make an ass out of you and me.” To all my fellow women who need to be reminded (like I did today) not to let anyone make us feel like we are not capable of success on our own, I think Destiny’s Child said it best, “All the women who are independent ... all the honeys who makin' money ... all the mommas who profit dollas, throw your hands up at me.”