"You're Not Like Other Girls" - why I'm proud to be exactly like other girls

At what point did it become trendy to be “not like other girls”? What is wrong with other girls? Probably nothing, also the likelihood is most of us are exactly like other girls, none of us are entirely unique and that’s okay. Other girls are cool, I think it’s a compliment to be like them.

I remember way back in secondary school, I was slightly obsessed with the idea of being different and ‘quirky’, and granted I didn’t really fit in with a lot of the girls at my school, I’d rather read a book while they’d discuss boys, but the troubling question is why did I think I was automatically better than them? Could it maybe be because they had typically feminine interests and my internalised misogyny convinced me that these interests were stupid or unimportant? Society convinces us that talking about ‘girly’ topics (makeup, boybands, and shopping spring to mind) makes us a less intelligent person, whose thoughts and interests are less important than others. In school I wanted to be edgy, I’d listen to Fall Out Boy or Panic! at the Disco while other girls listened to One Direction, I’d read a book while they’d talk about who was dating who that week, I’d study while they gossiped. I would proudly proclaim “oh, yeah I’m just not like other girls” but deep down, I was exactly like them, I just didn’t want to admit it.

Secondary school Betsy may be slightly disappointed to learn that twenty-year-old Betsy is exactly like other girls. I’m obsessed with Taylor Swift, my favourite colour is pink, I regularly talk to my friends about boys for hours, but I’m also intelligent, driven, and happy. My femininity does not negate my success. I plan to be successful and also wear pink and drink my ‘basic’ Starbucks drinks. I blame my teenage obsession with being ‘unique’ on both an internalised misogyny and on my own teenage angst, but I’m glad to say I’m past that now.

I’m an amalgamation of all the women and girls I’ve met and thought were cool, so yes, I am exactly like other girls. I copied my hairstyle from a girl on Pinterest, I’ve caught phrases from all my friends, I shop in the same places as basically every girl in my town, I write a diary because I wanted to be Bridget Jones, I have a toy bunny in my car because my friend at sixth form had a pug in her car and told me I needed a car mascot, and I’m obsessed with Abba because my mum is too. I am effectively made up of fragments of other women, my personality, my humour, even my style is copied from hundreds, probably thousands, of other women. Girls are cool, and I’m happy to be just like them.

I don’t think it’s a compliment to be “not like other girls”, why do we, as a society, think most girls are inferior? What it comes down to is sexism. If your compliment of me relies on a sexist stereotyping of women then I don’t want it, I don’t want your inherently sexist compliments thank you very much.