(inspiring music) - People always say that the girls of this generation are so vain. Why can't they put their brains towards books instead of good looks? I used to blame girls, too. Be more than a perfect body with a pretty hairdo. And then, I stepped out into the world. I opened my eyes to the truth about being a girl. I heard guys say things like, "Dude, she was 10 times tighter than that girl you hit and quit, Ray," or "I wanna pipe your sister some day," or "Her ass looks like a racetrack with those stretch marks, but at least it's big like Kim K's." I never grew up thinking of those things. Don't blame me, but when I thought about boys, I thought about dinner dates and soulmates, not fuckboys that look at you like shark bait. It breaks my heart for every girl growing up in this world. Instead of "How was your day?" messages, we get, "You up? "Wanna come fuck?" I am not an object. I have a voice and something to say. Do not assume that I belong in your bedroom. I belong in a conference room, and for anyone who thinks that this generation is so vain, it's because us girls have been held under a microscope day-to-day. It's like beautiful doesn't even exist unless you can cross everything off the checklist. Big butt, big boobs, skinny waist, includes small nose, plump lips, bony hips. Hairless, careless, but still has an awareness. In all fairness, I wanna be seen as beautiful, too. I mean, I don't wanna be demeaned. I mean, I'm not the same girl I was at 15. I mean, I'm stuck in between being a girl and a woman, growing up in a world that has taught to me to look sexy, get a degree, maybe a little rhinoplasty, but never disagree with misogyny. A world that has not taught me that being a woman is living fear that your basic healthcare will disappear, or that your paycheck might somehow be smaller than a man that does the same job, or that your boss might tell you to stop giving him blowjob bys. If you want a raise, you gotta compromise. Show me what lies above those thighs. Boy, please. The moment you misidentified everything was when you forgot that not even a hundred years ago, I could not vote. Look at what happens when you try to demote the very bodies that give birth to you, please. We are used to it all, and we are appalled, but you see, we don't know what it's like to be free. Equality is not just about calling someone out. Equality is accountability that my brother knows that I am equal to him, so equality is education from classrooms to courtrooms to conference rooms and computer screens. It is using tech for good, for Me Too, for movements. Equality is truth, is strong voices, is breaking through the silence that exists because silence can't exist if it's not tolerated. It is all of you, changing the future, clearing the path for every woman and every man. It is raising the next generation to know that not only does their voice matter, but it will be heard, and that's the why we got the power in our hands because we will not sit back and nod and smile, while certain people reconcile the rules to be fertile. Sorry, but it's my body, baby. I may be a young lady, but my dad always taught me to speak out and fight against injustice of every kind, so here I am speaking out for all my ladies in the house. We will not stop the fight until we hold our rights for women of every color, size, shape, sexual identity, and place in this world, and that is the truth about being a girl. (inspiring music)
