full of awesome.

i recently discovered a blog
i feel i should have known about,
being a self-described suburban feminist & all.

pigtail pals' cutesy-wootsy name
belies its noble & serious calling/mission/tagline:

redefine girly.

pigtail pals was created originally as a children's clothing company
by melissa wardy, a mom-preneur working with the intention
"to show girls they may be bold, adventurous & heroic, just like boys!"

according to her website,
"a pigtail pal doesn't wish upon a star & wait for her prince to show up.
a pigtail pal gets into her rocket ship & finds that star all on her own!"

melissa found a following of like-minded parents
wanting to preserve childhood through media literacy & creative play.

today, she works her blog & social media
to fight the marketing & sexualization negatively affecting childhood.

melissa, you go, girl.

i discovered her work through the following post, which itself is
full. of. awesome.

feel free to print it & tape it up on your bathroom mirror. i did.


there was a time when you were five years old,
& you woke up full of awesome.

you knew you were awesome.

you loved yourself.

you thought you were beautiful,
even with missing teeth & messy hair &
mismatched socks inside your grubby sneakers.

you loved your body & the things it could do.

you thought you were strong.

you knew you were smart.

do you still have it?
the awesome.

did someone take it from you?
did you let them?
did you hand it over, because someone told you
you weren’t beautiful enough, thin enough, smart enough, good enough?

why the hell would you listen to them?
did you consider they might be full of shit?

wouldn’t that be nuts, to tell my little girl that in another five or ten years,
she might hate herself because she doesn’t look like
a starving & photoshopped fashion model?
or even more bizarre, that she should be
sexy over smart, beautiful over bold?

are you freaking kidding me?

look at her. she is full of awesome.

you were, once.
maybe you still are.
maybe you are in the process of getting it back.

all I know is that if you aren’t waking up feeling like this about yourself,
you are really missing out.

image source: me of her, age twelve & still full of awesome.