To my darling little woman of the future,
Oh the responsibility of parenting, my little girl!
Dad and I believe in equality. What this means is, you can be what ever you want to be, and no stereotype need ever hold you back. That doesn’t mean you have to rail against the so-called norm if you don’t want to. Play sword fights in your pirate costume and shimmy up a tree, but on the days you feel like donning your tiara and calling yourself a princess, go right ahead. There is nothing wrong with being a princess!
In mid-2016, our world is at the edge of something revolutionary. By the end of this year, the leaders of three of the world’s most powerful nations very well could be women. I hope that by the time you have daughters of your own this won’t be a progressive concept. I hope it will just be.
In raising you and the baby who comes behind you, I vow to parent you as consciously as I can. I want to help pave the path to your destiny, whatever that may be, by teaching you to kick aside the preconceptions that will clutter it along the way. I promise to ensure that our conversations about what girls and boys “can be” are gently reframed in terms of what “girls and boys want to be”. I will make sure you know your value is far beyond the way you look. As the great literary character, Aibileen Clark (The Help), said: “You is kind, you is smart, you is important” – and that, my sweet girl, is all you need to know.
