“ELIZABETH”

This piece is based upon a Caucasian girl, age 16

Her main quote: I admire women that speak out and follow their conscience and know that you don’t have to conform.

Some of her other quotes:

• For me it’s not really important that I’m popular, it’s important that I have good relationships with people and that I’m myself.  I think for me it’s difficult just kind of finding out who I am and trying to be who I am while still being able to be in a group and fit in...

• I like being young and being able to move and dance and have your life ahead of you and have possibilities and to be asking those questions, you know to not know is okay—and just to embrace that not knowing.

• Embrace who you are and don’t compare yourself to other people and just realize the gifts that you have and realize that you’re the only person that can use them the way they’re meant to be used...I mean you’re yourself...there is only one of you... and just look for ways and places that you can find joy in yourself.

• I’ve been fortunate to grow up in the town that I have and to have the friends that I have and the family that I have...that’s why I’m worried about women who don’t have that, because if you have that then you know that you don’t have to fit a certain mold to be beautiful or to be worth while, but if you don’t, then I can’t imagine.

• I’m not always really sure what I want to study or exactly where I’m going with my life...but my parents have told me that I shouldn’t worry so much about that and worry  about the person I want to be.

• I’ve never really been on a diet, but I guess I’ve had issues with just being uncomfortable with my body and wanting to be thinner.  I think that is maybe one of the hardest things for women as they’re growing up is to accept their bodies, especially when we’re constantly fed with images of women as sex objects and then learning to be beautiful and not have to fit that mold to be beautiful because I think everyone needs to feel beautiful.

• I think everyone has felt pressure—maybe not everyone—but there is pressure to be sexually attractive.

• I think it’s just important that you can take all the horrible things that are happening and still have joy and keeping hope because in this world, it’s so easy to be cynical and I’m cynical sometimes too, but I just don’t think we’ll go very many places if we don’t keep hope alive.

• I’m trying to learn to not let my self esteem be affected by outside approval or disapproval.

• I just feel this huge responsibility being rich, at least I think of myself as being rich because I am rich compared to people in third world countries and it sometimes makes me angry that I don’t have some way of just helping them—it’s hard to change things.