My four-year-old loves Darth Vader (see the tiny tattoo on her hand), jewelry, wrestling, dresses, sword fighting, nerf guns, pretending, being a self-dressing mismatched mess… she’s everything. And when people ask if she’s a girly girl or not, I don’t know how best to answer and usually respond “both.” She loves the princesses. But she also loves the heroes and witches and villains- in her play, she tries them all on for size. She’s a consistent reminder to me that you don’t need to fit into anyone else’s parameters, societie’s ideals of femininity or masculinity. She’s a constant lesson in not categorizing people, including myself. Can you imagine if we could simply let our children (and really anyone else) be as they are with no expectations and no judgement? In short, she is living as her truest self and challenging me to do the same. Conflicted and loving it. What are you learning from the “little” people in your lives? (I think there’s maybe a cool poem idea in this?)
