Little Women

Describe your experience growing up... what toys did you play with? 

Growing up, I was a huge fan of Barbie dolls. I received at least one on every holiday, with clothes and accessories to match. This greatly upset some members of my family, such as my aunt, who never allowed her own daughter to have a Barbie doll. At the time, I did not understand why my Aunt Mary would never buy me the Barbie doll I asked for, although now I appreciate that she stood her ground on the subject.

Were limitations set by your family on what toys or shows you could watch? 

Though my parents allowed me to play with Barbies, they did not allow me to watch shows they felt were too inappropriate for my age. While many of my friends were chatting about Gossip Girl in seventh grade, I was not allowed to watch the show. I remember sitting with my friends at recess one day and being shocked at the things in the show that they were describing and embarrassed that I couldn’t watch the show (based on their descriptions of the plot, I didn’t really want to, it just seemed like the “normal/cool” thing to do).

How do you think your exposure to suggestive images or shows has affected your self-understanding and self esteem? 

I think that the suggestive images and/or shows that I have seen have negatively affected in my self-esteem. Although I try to portray myself as independent and secure, I have always had really low self-esteem. I easily compare myself to others, especially in regards to things that do not really matter, such as physical appearance. I think part of this comes from the media; I noticed at a young age that all of the girls on TV with seemingly great lives full of friends, cute crushes, and parties, were a lot skinnier and physically prettier than I was, and it was hard on my self-esteem when I compared myself to them.

Finally, how has your experience at an all-girls Catholic school affected/counteracted the messages you receive from the media? 

I think that being at an all-girls Catholic school has somewhat balanced out the messages that I have received from the media in two ways. In the shows that I watched on TV growing up, everyone looked perfect and made up all the time. This was true to some extent in my co-ed grade school, where many of the girls tried to see how much makeup they could get away with before they were sent to the bathroom to wash their faces off. Mount has shown me that I do not need to look "perfect" because my personality and academic drive will be what the other students notice about me, rather than my hair or constant lack of makeup. I plan to take this with me to college, although I will probably start brushing my hair once I get there, just to look presentable in class. 

Sources of My Identity

When my best friend met my grade school friends, literally the first question asked was “how in the world does this work?” The confusion is understandable; although we all have grown up within half a mile of one another, we have very (very) little in common personality wise. However, I think it has made us closer because each of us has a defined role in the group. I am the rational/brainy one; my friends know to call me for advice or help with schoolwork. Some of the other roles are: hopeless romantic, fitness addict, celebrity devotee, wild child, fashion expert, and sunny optimist. Whenever any of us needs something, we know that there is a member of our friend group who can help us out. Moving onto high school with a reliable group of friends (sisters) behind me made the transition so much easier, and knowing that I can call any of them at any time during the transition to college will be helpful as well. Having these girls in my life has made me a more reliable friend and more trusting person.

The only reason that I show up to my menial job as a waitress in a retirement living facility is because of one ninety-year-old woman, whom I call Yoyo. She is one of my favorite people in the world, both because of her strength and because of her sense of humor. Yoyo had a hard life; she watched her daughter, then her husband, die of cancer, but she works to maintain her humor despite these tragedies. Every night, Yoyo makes sarcastic and outlandish requests for dinner, and I call her out on it. Later on in the evening, if I finish my work early, my boss and I go to sit with her and her three best friends at their table and we make fun of one another. Yoyo has taught me to not only sharpen my wit and quicken my sarcastic replies, but also to value the smaller things in life, like a hug or a smile. As she left the dining room tonight, she asked if I was working tomorrow, and when I unhappily replied that I was, she said “Good, I’ll see you then. I miss you.” It was such a simple phrase, but it made my night.

From the third day of my life onwards, I have lived in Philadelphia. Although my parents avoided taking me downtown during my childhood at all costs (they claim that old people like themselves hate crowds and traffic), my hometown has had a big impact on my life in recent years. Taking the train downtown by myself was a truly liberating experience, I saw for the first time how independent and resourceful I can be. These (sometimes scary) public transit adventures into the city for service projects and a summer volunteer program/internship at CHOP showed me how truly different life can be for residents of the same city. This realization is one of the reasons why I fell in love with the University of Pennsylvania, where I will be a student next year. Penn offers me the opportunity to stay and help change my hometown for the better through projects aimed at improving the community of West Philadelphia and the city as a whole, along with intense academic challenges. Though my hometown had an impact on my past experiences, I absolutely cannot wait to see how it shapes my future.