Take this pink ribbon off my eyes.

Hey everyone. My name is Meagan Lorenzo and I am a grrl in transition. I am a senior at UCF majoring in Molecular and Microbiology hoping to continue on to medical school in the next year or so. In the last two years I have becoming very heavily involved in feminism, though I think I was born a feminist, and women’s studies and plan on always incorporating it in my life in some way. I love medicine, science, and feminism. I hope to find myself. As we all know, our identities are multi-faceted and as such our politics are fluid and subject to change. In the past few months my feminism has evolved and thus, I am a grrl in transition. I am taking this class because I’m a girl. Simple as that. I am interested in the way society and cultures shape our lives and experiences as girls. I know that the girls we know will grow into women and what better way to enhance and understand the female experience than to start at the beginning?

“Your Life as a Girl.”

I was shocked and horrified and yet reminded of myself in so many of the instances in “Your Life as a Girl.” Sittenfeld accurately captures “girlhood” in her story but I have come to learn that although Anna’s girlhood was slightly reminiscent of mine, this is not the case for all girls. I know many women and girls will say that they never felt about themselves the way Anna did; however, would it be a stretch to say that some of these girls actually did? No one wants to admit they self-loathing and feelings of inadequacy that one feels growing up as a girl. Personally, although I did not feel the exact way Anna did I remember the embarrassment of boys not wanting me to engage in their sport games or how much I wanted to die when I did not understand something in class, or worse, when I was one of the few who did understand.

Red “Anything Extracurricular”

I enjoyed the stories in the “Anything Extracurricular” section because they were all about girls, by girls. Although the insight shared with us in the “Anything Extracurricular” section was not exactly the same as Anna’s experiences, the uniting theme was the common link of joys and pains all girls experience when growing up. Although girls are all different we share many common experiences; the instance may be different but the feeling is the same. What I did enjoy about the girl’s stories in this section was the way these girls, in the face of hardships and the struggles of growing up managed to find and have happy and positive experiences.

The lives of girls can be hard and joyful, complex yet so simple. The experience of being a girl is so real yet beautiful. I look forward to learning more about girl’s lives and consequently more about my own experience as a girl as this course progresses on.