Factory Girl: GRRRL Power!

Factory Girl declares 2014  "The Year of The Powerful Girl," for she has grown quite weary of society perpetually lecturing to (at) us girls some seriously inane theories such, as but not limited to:

• Opinionated girls are overly aggressive, or scary.
• Loud girls are abrasive and unattractive.
• Girls who work in fashion are vapid.
• Academic girls are frumpy.
• Girls, in general, just aren't funny.
•  A girl's only value in this world resides in the way she looks.
• Feminine girls are easy.
• Tomboys are man-hating lesbians.
• Girls are just too "clingy."
• Girls are far too emotional to be president.
• Girls who play sports are too masculine.
• And, my personal favorite: Girls who are individual and outspoken will never find love.

Seems like girls are being shoved into tiny little boxes, with very specific labels. Factory Girl doesn't like living in a box, for it's quite suffocating and gives her no room to grow. After all, darling — boxes are for shoes and labels are for clothes.

A girl is a multifaceted human and has the absolute birth right to be opinionated, funny, attractive, athletic, stylish and smart, all at the same time. 2014 is the year we smash these cruel stereotypes and embrace who we are, not what the media wants us to be.

Factory Girl decided to start out her quest for 'GRRRL POWER'  by interviewing some local interesting, dynamic and STRONG teenage girls in our community about what GRRRL POWER means to them. Teenagers are the face of our immediate future, and Factory Girl finds it quite interesting/heartbreaking that their ever-important voices never seem to make their way into the media.

"I believe in my whole heart, mind and body that girls constitute a revolutionary soul force that can and will change the world for real." — Kathleen Hanna