7 and a half years ago I held my baby daughter in my arms. A lot has changed since then but one thing that hasn’t is the fierce love I felt then and feel now for her.
It is fierce because it is strong but it is also because I fear what the world does to girls. I want her to grow up unfettered and unbroken.
Mums watch our daughters in a different way to the way we watch our sons, we have different fears for them. I would do anything for my daughter, and I would rather change the world than change the unique human being that she is.
I want a world where she is free to run in the woods.
I want a world where she can be interested in fossils and rocks as well as ponies and hairstyles.
I want a world where Rosa Parks being made to get up on the bus is history, not an illustration of current issues faced by her friends of colour.
I want a world where her way of seeing the world is seen as a unique and special experience not a disability – and that it doesn’t make her less feminine
I want a world where she continues to not bat an eyelid about two women being married
I want a world where she can compete and strive and make changes and no-one calls her pushy or a careerist.
And I want that for every daughter of every mother.
We want our daughters to be unbroken and we need to change the world to make it so.
