Millennial women are all grown up, contrary to popular belief, and they’re over the toxic rules they grew up with.
I recently reached the ripe old age of 30, and as a millennial woman, that’s no small feat.
Millennials grew up during a really intense and stressful time in history, to begin with.
HBO / Via giphy.com
In our first 15 years of life, most of us saw at least two wars play out, watched an international terrorist attack unfold on TV before our eyes, learned how to use the internet, and then had to teach our parents…the list goes on. It desensitized us to a lot and left most of us pretty vulnerable entering adulthood.
Being a woman on top of it has been ~an experience~.
1.
Many millennial women grew up being taught rules that were straight-up toxic. So much of what our parents preached taught us to put others’ needs before our own, to shrink and diminish ourselves for the comfort of men, and that our lives could only look a handful of ways.
2.
Let’s talk about career options. Millennial girls were taught girls could grow up to be anything — but were discouraged from actually pursuing that.
Netflix / Via giphy.com
Great that they didn’t tell us we couldn’t do it, but they sure worked to try and stop us behind the scenes.
3.
They also encouraged us to go into debt for our education.
The millennial urge to be force into college without having a clue of what you wanted to do, get into massive student loan debt and be called lazy for the rest of eternity by the media
Twitter: @Lyssanicotera
4.
Even if you got an education, you were reminded that a career shouldn’t matter to you more than a relationship and the all-important path to marriage.
Twitter: @godlywomanhood
5.
We were taught that being smart and pretty were both really important, but you could only be one.
@zafreeeeen YEAH EVEN “BEAUTY WITH BRAINS” IS NOT COMPLIMENT!! STOP STEREOTYPING WOMEN TO BE EITHER PRETTY OR SMART, NOT BOTH.
Twitter: @Rockstargoogie
6.
If you were smart, that was your WHOLE identity, and maintaining it was more important than anything else.
Twitter: @FatimaAlJassas
7.
For the pretty girls, you were expected to build your future around your looks.
8.
Did I mention we were constantly bombarded with reminders that being skinny was the only way to be beautiful?
Twitter: @clhubes
9.
Some of us had families where having any big feelings was written off as being “dramatic.”
my parents called me “dramatic” and that I supposedly cried for everything, till this day they still have no idea I have anxiety .. https://t.co/HByyE5rxl3
Twitter: @micaelajco
11.
Being strong was more important than being gentle with yourself.
Hilary Clinton / Via giphy.com
A lot of millennial women are finding that as parents and professionals, they’re liable to take on more than they can handle because they were taught to take care of everyone and get everything done.
12.
When it comes to sex, you were damned if you did…
13.
…and damned if you didn’t.
14.
Millennial women grew up being told to cover up because men couldn’t control themselves.
When some pastor tells you to cover your children up because there are men around struggling to control themselves the appropriate response is NOT “wow, 4yo girl needs to be a one piece swimsuit”, it is “you’re a fucking predator who should never have access to children.”
Twitter: @ToriGlass
15.
The media tore apart everything we loved, especially our favorite stars.
FOX / Via giphy.com
Millennials grew up in the days where traditional media was totally dismissive of everything we liked, which were also the savage days of the early internet where the likes of Perez Hilton et al. annihilated the stars we looked up to, like Britney, Christina, and so, so many more.
I mean, talk about exhausting. It’s no wonder millennials are doing things differently than the generations before them, especially when it comes to their kids.
Millennial women, what rules and attitudes were you fed up with growing up? Let me know in the comments!