favorite articles + legit advice
Warm Weather, Cool Women – June 11, 2021
It’s all happening: days growing longer and warmer, schools letting out (right after they let in!), and just beneath the normal buzzy feeling of the start of summer sits an almost indescribable once-in-a-lifetime energy of reopening.
 
As COVID recedes from the headlines, in its place have emerged a steady stream of articles about a broad cross-section of young women. They hail from a variety of backgrounds, and they shine in all different corners of our world – some national figures in sports, entertainment, or social justice; others local leaders at their high schools – but all of them share a fire that matches the dynamism of this moment. Malala, Naomi, Olivia, Paxton, Verda, and the women of UCLA gymnastics. Each one in her own way has grabbed a set of invisible reigns and steered a course different from any others before her. Their stories engross because they are stories of grit and perseverance and vulnerability and hope and, above all else, authenticity.
 
  • MALALA is widely known as the Pakistani 15-year-old activist who survived attempted murder to become an even louder voice and eventually the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. This month saw Malala on the cover of British Vogue – the story inside is a love letter to this incredible now 23-year old who, it turns out, has a giant soft spot for comedy (Ted Lasso is her favorite show? I did not see that one coming!). She’s continuing to change the world, this time around using media and her new partnership with Apple TV+.
 
  • NAOMI Osaka, the second-ranked woman in all of tennis and the world’s highest paid female athlete who, at the age of 23, withdrew from the French Open 10 days ago, citing the link between bouts of depression and anxiety with required media stints during tournaments. Beyond demonstrating what real self-care looks like, Naomi is shining a light on an ugly side of professional sports, a routine interaction that, in any other context, would be called bullying.
 
  • OLIVIA Rodrigo rocketed to fame this year with a song called Driver’s License, and she’s continued to dominate the charts – and pop culture – with her debut album Sour. Just 18-years old, Olivia resonates because she embodies a rainbow of feelings, from giddy to crushed, all of which make her completely relatable. Not just to teens, by the way – Millennials and Gen Xers love her, too, and even SNL did a send-up.
 
  • PAXTON Smith, 18-year-old valedictorian of her Dallas high school, tossed her approved speech for an impassioned 3-minute stand against a new Texas abortion law. As Paxton explained, she had a platform, and she couldn’t throw away her opportunity to use it. It takes guts to stand in front of your classmates and give a prepared, vetted speech – imagine the strength required to speak from the heart, without getting the school’s okay, laying bare your convictions… especially on a topic this controversial.
 
  • VERDA Tetteh is the one on the list you’re least likely to have heard of, but once you read her story you will never forget her. Another 18-year old, this one the elected graduation speaker at Fitchburg High School in Massachusetts. Harvard-bound Verda has a full ride to college, so when she won her school’s highest honor and its $40,000 prize, she did something beyond amazing that tells you everything about this young woman. Just read the article.
 
  • THE WOMEN OF UCLA GYMNASTICS have rewritten the story of powerlessness, abuse, and silence experienced in this sport over the past several years. As allegations of sexual assault by the team doctor turned into a trial, a conviction, and one of the most incredible victim-impact statement sessions ever held, some wondered whether gymnastics would ever find joy. Well, it has, thanks to these women.
 
When I speak to audiences about the experience of puberty and growing up, I often talk about the dramatic evolution of our culture’s relationship with this stage of life, particularly for girls. Back in my day, puberty was rarely talked about, relegated to a class at school or a section of the massive tome Our Bodies, Ourselves. Physical, emotional, and social transformations weren’t celebrated – they were whispered about. It’s incredible to raise a daughter now and listen to open, empowered, shameless conversation around all of it: curves, periods, body dysmorphia, mood shifts, consent, and on and on. Anatomical terms were once “bad words,” but now vagina can be shouted from the rooftops and no one (of a certain age, at least) bats an eye. This marks massive progress, unimaginable even 15 years ago.
 
The young women who have recently made their way into our newsfeeds and our hearts represent the next level of girls grabbing the microphone and finding their voice. Nothing is off-limits; and none of them is hamstrung by her narrative. Young people don’t just have a mic – they have an indelible marker with which to rewrite an entire generation’s future. Their stories add oxygen to the fire of the current reopening energy.
 
Of course, COVID is not over – far from it, particularly if you live in one of dozens of countries with case numbers trouncing vaccine doses. But here in the U.S., we should all be bruised from pinching ourselves that the virus is on the wane and the vaccine is available basically everywhere. For sure, complications related to the virus remain, ranging from increasing numbers of post-vaccine myocarditis to the emergence of fake COVID vaccines around the world. And there’s much to say about how people are attempting reentry, like color-coded wristbands. Let’s all just draw inspiration from these young women, and we’re going to be okay.
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