“Know that you can start late, look different, be uncertain and still succeed.”

Why do we want to be smaller? What exactly is the appeal of being smaller? How does it benefit us? Does it make us better mothers? Better students? Better lovers? Better artists? Scientists? Friends? Does it make us more badass badasses? No, no, no, no, no. You must see that it doesn’t. It doesn’t do anything but make us smaller. Babies and puppies are small. So are dimes and Skittles. You’re a fucking woman. A woman! You are entitled to occupy as much fucking space as you like with your awesomeness, and you better be suspicious as fuck of anybody who tells you differently. Why, ladies? Why must we continue to whittle ourselves down? Who is it for? What is it for? You can walk through a certain aisle at the pharmacy or at the grocery store and see the language of diminishment all over the packaging for weight loss aids of all kinds. “Shrink your waist.” “Lose inches off your thighs.” “Slim down.” “Get skinny.” How about “Grow your mind.” “Increase your confidence and productivity.” “Expand your knowledge.” “Augment your scope of asskicking.” That’s a valid message for women and girls: grow, expand, branch out, open up, get bigger, wider, faster, stronger, better, smarter. Go up not down. Get strong, not skinny. You are not here to get smaller. You are not here to have a thin waist and brittle thighs. You are not here to disappear. You’re here to change the world. Change the fucking world, then! Forget about “losing a few pounds.” Think about what you could be gaining instead.

Stop blaming yourself for other peoples shitty doings to you. They fucked up. Not you.

I don’t want to live any longer in this world of “the customer is always right.” This is a world that shows the aggressive, the bull-headed, the cruel that they have full license to behave like beasts to get what they want. Half the time, they’re even rewarded for it; “here, ma'am, so sorry for the trouble, please accept this gift card–no charge.”