This is being a girl.

This is growing up as a runner and racing the boys on the playground in elementary school only to see shock register on your coach's face when you keep up with the boys on a team run in middle school. This is being honked at, yelled at, and catcalled while running in your own neighborhood, and being told that your outfit was a warrant for said honking, yelling, and catcalling. This is watching boys at track practice run shirtless on 90 degree days but being reprimanded by your coach when you choose to run in only a sports bra. This is being told by your coach that you will get slower over the course of high school because "girls always get slower, especially ones with your body type," even though you raced your fastest mile in your last meet of senior year.

This is watching a boy at your job be promoted to manager at 16 but working there until the age of 19 before earning the same promotion. This is picking up three 10-hour shifts, three days in a row because a coworker quit when you refused to go out with him. This is being told you'll "never make it in politics" because of your gender. This is being asked if you voted for Hillary just because she's a woman. This is watching a qualified female candidate who dedicated her life to politics lose the presidency to a male counterpart who picked up politics for fun.

This is being called every name in the book for what you choose to do, or choose not to do, with boys. This is being yelled at by a boyfriend for dating boys before him, but no mention of the girls he dated before you. This is putting up with abuse in a relationship because you don't want to upset such a violent person even more by breaking up with him. This is being told by your friends that you're lying about abuse because a real "liberal" or "feminist" would have said something sooner. This is being called a liar by your friends because a boy's reputation is more believable than your word. This is watching assault be blamed on a girl's Halloween costume or how much she drank, not on the person who did it.

This is being a girl.

This is being above the labels given to you and determined to prove them wrong. This is doing everything boys can do, and doing it better too. This is majoring in engineering and political science and business even when people don't believe you can succeed. This is choosing college over a high school boyfriend. This is proving that you can have a career and a family, not just one or the other. This is girls' nights in, supplying bobby pins for bad hair days, and complimenting other girls' eyebrows in the bathroom. This is buying junk food and cheesy early 2000s movies for a friend who just went through a breakup, and this is breaking up with immature boys who still think snapbacks are cute when you know you deserve better. This is building up others, proving expectations wrong and knowing your worth. It is more than stereotypes and labels from people who don't even know you.

This is being a girl.