“Girls should be seen and not heard.” they said.
They tell us to sit pretty,
cross our legs,
speak softly,
smile to appease their gazes,
fit a mould, and
stay small.
But I was never meant to be small.
I was meant to be fire,
to be thunder,
to be wild,
to be free,
to be the voice that cracks the silence open.
Loud.
And still,
They call us too much
Too ambitious.
Too proud.
Too angry.
Too weak.
Too emotional.
But tell me,
what is “too emotional”!
if not the passion that built movements?
if not the grief that turned into resilience?
if not the love that fought for freedom?
What is too emotional?
They tell us we’ve come so far.
And we have.
But far is not the same as finished.

Far is not the same as free.
Because still—
We walk home with our keys between our fingers,
We measure our words and bite our tongues,
We fight for a seat at a table,
Still, we cower with our tails between our legs,
because we were taught to shrink.
They touch without asking,
write laws on our bodies like we are pages
they have the right to edit.
They carve rules into our skin,
press them into our ribs like commandments—
Be soft. Be small. Be obedient.
But what they forget,
what they fear,
what they pray we never remember—
Is that we were never built for silence.
I will not apologize.
Not for my voice,
Not for my rage,
Nor the space I fill.
We are not asking anymore,
We are not waiting,
We are not whispering.
We will speak,
We will shout,
We will be loud.
And we will be
Unapologetic.