The number of hands that have been wrung and fingers that have been wagged at girls who dare give voice and name to their interior lives suggests that the written history of the world is absolutely awash in the stuff. But the female voice, and the girl’s voice especially, is characterized mostly by the deafening silence it emits from the canon.[…]
Those who dare to document their lived experience as worthwhile are brave new girls indeed. As brightly as these girls shine, there remain wet blankets around every corner attempting extinguish the flame in their hearts. They are dismissed as excessively feminine and juvenile, two words that mean the same thing in the hearts and minds of critics who would sooner praise a six-volume gaze at a Norwegian man’s navel than consider the possibility that there are treasures in the hearts of girls.
Alana Massey, from All The Lives I Want: Essays About My Best Friends Who Happen To Be Famous Strangers (via shakespeareandpunk)