I recently read an article on The Vagenda about female guilt. If you're a woman or just want a good read then check that out here. However that piece got me thinking about what it's like to be a woman and my connotations with the word. 


I am an eighteen year old woman who actually hates calling myself a woman. I still live at home, I don't have a job and I still have no idea what I'd like to do with my life so calling myself a woman is an injustice to the world.


I hear the word woman and I think of a middle aged female with a career, children, a house, a husband and a modest savings account. But why do I think this? Why do I automatically picture someone with perfect hair, beautiful make up, a baby perched on her hip and a handbag slung effortlessly over one shoulder? 


This image or idea of a woman has caused me so much pain and continues to cause me problems. While I may only be eighteen there are some things I know about myself.
I'm too indecisive to pick a career path, I'd rather wear band shirts than lace blouses, I don't mind if I have kids or not, I can only style my hair in three different ways and eat at least one bar of chocolate a day.


For all intense and purposes as far as my idea of a woman goes, I'm still a thirteen year old girl with boyband posters on her wall. I am constantly troubled with feelings of inadequacy. But why? A woman is a person, a human. Women don't fit cookie cutter molds. Each woman is unique and different and can't be defined. It is only  after I read different articles on The Vagenda that this became clear to me I realised my mindset of cringing anytime someone called me a "young woman" was fundamentally wrong.


I am doing myself an injustice not calling myself a woman. Women are strong, beautiful and talented people. Why shouldn't I be proud? I'm casting away my own stereotype and embracing who and what I am. I'm a woman, I'm a writer, I'm me and I'm proud.