“UNTITLED By ZM”

“Girlhood can be defined in many different ways. Everyone has different definitions of what girlhood is. Us girls we’re always trying to fit in. From changing how we look to changing how we think. Girls go through a lot behind closed doors. We have to deal with the stress of [not] getting pregnant, not to add the pain we feel monthly due to our periods. But like girlhood us teens are influenced by our community. The teens in our generation go through and see a lot of things that we aren’t meant to see especially at such a young age. Things like police brutality, gun violence, drug use, physical and mental abuse. The list goes on. Adults in this generation assume all teens that act out are just troubled. But in reality we either just want to fit in or we have built up trauma that nobody sees. All teens want to fit in. We might not want to fit into the same place but we look at the people we want to be like and we’re influenced by what they do. Or we have been through traumatic events that cause us to act out for attention.”