As girls we are taught to cover up and hold on to our innocence as long as possible, but as we age a new voice merges in our lives. A voice that tells us that we should spend enormous amounts of energy, time, and money striving for perfection, and when we fail we should feel remorseful and unworthy because this voice told us we have to be bone thin to be sexy, and sexy to be successful. That it's better if we dye our hair, starve ourselves, or inject collagen into our face than be comfortable in our own skin. A voice that tells us no matter what we accomplish it can not outshine a mans accomplishment. That we should abide to a role that cooks, cleans, take care of the children, and know when to be silent.
A voice that says women are passive and submissive emotional and weak. A voice that says if we don't demand respect, independence, or equality then we don't deserve it.
In fact, sometimes we submit to the inequality or disrespect because we know people pay more attention to our bodies than our minds. More attention to our assets than our achievements. They don't teach us to use our own voice because our voice is powerful. Our voice is Lucy stone, Ella Baker, Susan B. Anthony, Oprah Winfrey, Margaret thatcher.
Our voice created one of the first computer programming languages. Our voice swam across the English Channel and flew across the Atlantic.  They don't tell us that if we use our voice we can change the world, but they regularly remind us that we need to be extremely beautiful or severely skinny. That we can succeed by gyrating or thrusting our hips in a hip hop music video, but not in politics, medicine, and technology like the woman before us. What saddens me is, when I look at the world around me is I see more competition for  likes on social networks than for employment, more women in the adult entertainment industry than in government offices, because this voice, society's voice, can overpower our own if we let them. It has allowed us to be victimized repeatedly to the point where some of us are just to scared to break the silence.
It's time that we follow a voice that ignored discrimination and abuse so that one day it could be heard. A voice that tells us we can make any dreams come true , that we are worthy, that we are queens. So many voices are fighting for access into our lives but it's time we listen to only one...our own.