Growing up as a girl isn’t easy. As soon as you start school, the other girls torment you and each other. If you’re lucky, that ends after college, but it usually continues on for years. They fight, call each other names, spread rumors, and say terrible things behind one another’s backs.
I can clearly remember one such occasion when I had invited a friend named Sarah to my house for a sleepover. We hadn’t hung out that much, but she had recently started to show an interest in being friends with me. I found out later that she only stayed at my house so that she could gossip with her friends about me later.
The problem that we face is that young girls aren’t being shown how important it is to respect one another. They’re tearing each other down because they haven’t been shown how to support one another. It’s time for that cycle to stop, so here are 6 ways we should be teaching girls to build each other up instead of attacking one another.
1. Urging Them to Help Others
It’s such a simple thing, but it’s something that we often overlook. We can’t just assume that young girls will want to help and support others. Although that can sometimes be the case, it isn’t always. It’s absolutely crucial that we show girls that they need to help others, no matter who they are.
2. Letting Them Know It’s Okay to Ask for Help
It’s not just other people who will need help. At some point or another, every girl will find herself in a difficult situation that she can’t get through alone. In cases like that, all girls need to know that it’s okay to ask others for help and that they shouldn’t be afraid to.
3. Teaching Them the Importance of Loyalty
Of course, if you have a friend who’s toxic, you have every right to cut them off. However, many of us have forgotten what it means to be truly loyal to the people in our lives who really care about us. This is especially true for young girls and teenagers who backstab each other on a regular basis. Because of all of that, we need to teach them how to stay loyal to their closest friends.
4. Showing Them How to be a Team Player
We put too far too much effort into teaching people leadership skills. Not everyone is a leader and that’s okay. However, every single person will be part of a team at some point. If girls aren’t taught from a young age how to work with others, they’re going to end up resenting the people that they’re being forced to work with.
5. Telling Them That Talent is More Important than Winning
Talent comes from practice, perseverance, and dedication. Anyone can learn it but it takes a huge amount of hard work to get there. On the other hand, winning something doesn’t always require as much effort. It’s easy to cheat and to sabotage others in order to come out on top. So, show young girls the power of learning talent rather than urging them to be better than everyone else.
6. Introducing Them to Other Strong Women
Girls need people to look up to. They need good role models who will show them what it means to be a strong, self-reliant female. So, we need to teach them about some of the women who shaped our world to be what it is today. Along with that, we need to encourage them to look up to fierce female characters.
It’s such a shame that us women love to tear one another down and rip each other apart. The truth, however, is that this is something that begins early on in childhood. If we can teach young girls how to treat each other with respect early enough, we may be able to break the cycle once and for all.
Share this article with your friends and family. Show them just how easy it could be to teach girls how to support each other instead of hurting one another.
