Sometimes, the best part of going out is not even the actual function, it’s the hours before. The music on high, makeup scattered everywhere, dancing, someone straightening their hair while the other tries on six different outfits until finally going to the others’ closet. Being a girl is laughing with your friends in the mirror, borrowing lip glosses and makeup, while hyping each other up before going out. Those moments are more unforgettable than the actual night out.
This freshman year, for me, one of the best things was decorating my dorm — my little woman cave. Everything pink, girly, full of color, and full of a girly personality. It became my favorite place for late night laughter, movie nights, skincare nights with face masks, and endless conversations about crushes, college, and dreams. It even became a hangout spot for the boys of our floor, especially because of our 6-foot pink bean bag. Boys could never understand how comforting and relaxing it is to have a girls day.
Girlhood
Being a girl is to appreciate the smallest things in life. The smell and simple beauty of a flower. Going crazy when someone gifts you flowers. Walking into a very dangerous store called Sephora just to look and somehow leave smiling with new makeup and with thousands of lipliners in your hand. Spending enough time to find your own signature scent because scents have memories. It’s getting overly excited when you have a birthday or party to attend and get to go shopping for new clothes and can finally wear high heels, feeling powerful like we own the world.
Girls are called “extra,” but in reality, that is the beauty of being a girl. Caring deeply enough, romanticizing everything in life, and finding joy in being feminine. Going to Pilates with your friends just to be chic, perfecting your makeup routine, learning how to dance watching YouTube with your roommate at 1 a.m. The beauty of being a girl.
Girl Talk
Also there is something so comforting and hilarious about having a crush as a girl. Your friends will feed your delusions like it is a full-time job. You tell them about one simple eye contact across the room and suddenly you’re hearing “he’s totally in love with you.” And genuinely? It makes life so much better and entertaining.
Imagine this: girls can even communicate visually. One glance at each other and we already know it means “‘we’re gonna talk about this later.” The debriefs after going out are a ritual — every outfit we liked, every person, every interaction is being overanalyzed until 4 a.m., just to feel bad after basically roasting the whole party.
However, beneath all that laughter and gossip is something far more sentimental. It’s girls being there for each other. Being a girl’s girl means hyping each other up, it means smiling at a girl who you don’t know just to be nice and get a smile back, it’s fixing each other’s crown without jealousy, and definitely proving people wrong when they underestimate us.
More than a gender
Being part of Her Campus reminded me that femininity is not shallow. Being a girl is powerful enough. It comes with creativity, emotion, softness, intelligence, resilience, and ambition, all existing in one person. Girls can be loud, have five different laughs, dream endlessly, gossip a little too much, and being capable to overcome anything life puts on our way.
In the end, being a girl is art. It is the perfume on our clothes, the flowers on our desks, the pink dazzled pen, the skin care in our night table, and the late-night talks with the same two friends. And honestly, I could never trade that kind of magic.