I am NOT a boy...

I have often thought that life would've been so much easier if I had been born a male.

I wouldn't have got told off for making my dresses dirty when playing.

Come to think of it, I wouldn't have to wear dresses!!!

Seriously, women's clothing is the most uncomfortable stuff ever.

Every morning you need to spend ages doing your hair and makeup, covering up, perfecting and changing everything to make you look presentable.

You lament over your body and how it doesn't look as skinny, as curvy, as sensual, as tanned, or one of a hundred other things as the girl next door/on tv/your sister/your best friend.

You are taught to compete with other women on how you look in order to get men to notice you.

You wear high heels to look sexy and appealing (and because they are sooooo damn cute) only to have your feet destroyed by them.

You get periods. That alone is a deal breaker on whether being a guy is easier. Enough said.

You are taught to find your worth in men, your fathers and boyfriends/husbands, but finding one who hasn't been affected by the image of the 'ideal woman' and who accepts your flawed body is getting harder and harder.

You are looked at strangely if you ever say you don't want children.

You have to go through pregnancy and childbirth.

You get paid less, promoted less, and have to juggle having a family and working.

You always, where ever you are, have to be aware of your surroundings, the people that are there and, if trouble strikes, how to defend yourself.

You can't walk by yourself much anymore without some kind of fear and trepidation of attack.

Your relationship with your mother will be strained at some point, and your relationship with your father it will make or break you.

If you get emotional some guy somewhere will assume it is hormones, and in a work situation it is seen as weak and pathetic.

HOWEVER:

Being a woman is unique.

The bond you share with other women, when you aren't competeing with them, is deep and sisterly and cannot be replaced.

I have to say that relationships with sisters, when they are going well, are worth all the painful things put together (Keren, I love you so much).

Though your Dad has the potential to destroy your self image, there is also a special bond that can occur between men and their daughters that leads the men to be better people and teaches the girls how capitvating and amazing they are.

It is GREAT to be able to cover up a really bad pimple with makeup!

Shoes are too cute, who cares about the pain.

Babies are worth every moment of pain that you ever experience to do with periods, pregnancy and childbirth. The ability to be the one who brings life into the world is one that is humbling and beautiful and amazing.

Learn how to defend yourself; there is nothing quite as satisfying as having some idiot try to do something to you only to end up writhing on the ground because you aren't gonna let it happen!

So.....

Learn to love being a woman.

Learn to love other women as your sisters and not as competition.

Learn to appreciate what the world sees as weakness as your strengths, given to you by a God who knows your heart, knows how much you want to be loved, knows how valuable you are, and who made you beautiful, in his image, and as the pinnacle of creation (Adam needed Eve, just as a male dominated world needs women).

Find your worth in God and it will never again destroy you when someone lets you down.

Embrace your feminity, curves, sensuality, and emotions as strengths. Only women can bring them too the world, and without it....

...the world would be a much hairer, smellier place!