Dear Girl, It’s your day. Love, your Big Sis xo

Dear Girl,

Yes you. The one who’s teetering between childhood and becoming a woman. The one with big dreams and a full heart and deep, burning questions:

Is anybody out there listening? Do I count? Does anyone care?

Did you know there’s a day—a holiday of sorts—all for you? Well, it’s today – the International Day of the Girl.

Today is our day to tell you that you’re strong and beautiful. That we take you seriously – your hopes and ambitions, your fears and your search for meaning.

Today is our day to tell you that we see you – that you aren’t invisible – and that we want to know what your voice sounds like. There’s room for you here on the world stage and there’s room for you in our hearts. Our eyes and ears and minds and hearts are open. Help us to open them more.

Today is our day to tell you that your education, your opportunity, your dreams – they matter.

Today is our day to remind you that your popularity, your clothes, your boyfriends, your grades, your successes, your failures, your race, your hairstyle, your ability, your age, your wounds, your accomplishments, your figure, your nationality, your heart ache, your family structure, your social status, even your most shining moments – they don’t define you.

You are important because you are you.

Today is our day to tell you how valuable you are – that we believe in you, that we admire you, that we think the world of you.

Today is our day to acknowledge that in many ways life’s been unkind to you, and yet we know that doesn’t have to define your future. And you won’t let it. Because you’re creative and innovative and talented and amazing.

And because deep down you know that you were made to make a difference. You were made to change the world. You were made to blaze a new path. You were made to shape history.

Hope for our future belongs to you.

Today is your day, girl. And we honor you, applaud you, celebrate you, and we implore you – will you embrace it? will you be brave? and will you let us follow?

Yes, girl, this is your moment. Shine on, little sister.

Love,
Big Sis xx

_____________________

Friends, October 11th is International Day of the Girl. If you haven’t yet seen it, please read and share the the Girl Declaration (use #GirlDeclaration).

Also, if you get a chance to watch Girl Rising (see the trailer below), snatch that offer right up and grab as many as you can–men and women, boys and girls–to watch it along with you. Our future hangs precariously in the hands of the now and the not yet. Let’s help our girls find their place and usher in the ‘not yet’ right along with us. In fact, let’s clear some room and let them run ahead of us and lead.

Because these girls? They are our hope.

The official trailer for Girl Rising: (Warning, if you’re like me – you might cry with the beauty and hope of it all).

This post is part of 31 Days of Women Empowering Women, as well as part of a larger movement of writers all over the world joining in with The Nester in writing everyday for the month of October. See hundreds of incredible #31Days projects here.