When I think of women, I visualize people who can relate to my problems and concerns, a community of individuals who understand each other and are allies. When I think of women, I imagine independent and powerful individuals who can do anything they set their mind to with their great dedication and hard work. When I think of women, I also, sadly, recall gossip that’s been said about me or drama that I’ve been through.

As previously mentioned on my blog, girl-on-girl hate is something I’ve been through before and we can all agree that a lot of us have suffered through a similar experience at school, university, or work regardless of age or nationality. The way we treat each can be extremely awful and the fact that we can’t help it is pretty disheartening.

“One of the reasons has actually been because a girl’s primary language consists of drama, no matter where you are in the world. This typically arises at the end of middle school and happens to stick with the species for the continuation of their lifetime, leading to crying, gossip, and the never ending desire to be sassy.” – Basant She in The Ones We Let Go of

We just simply do not understand the fact that we’re all in this together. Women face similar challenges and adversities, we’re on the same team! This really is to blame on girls viewing other girls as competition in almost anything and everything, in other words, jealousy. Someone you know has eyebrows that are always on fleek? Bash her behind her back constantly while you’re with your friends instead of complimenting her and making her day. Constantly comparing yourself to the women around you and planning their downfall is an awful thing and has to be stopped.

Imagine the world today if all women just channeled all their previously used attention and efforts on breaking other girls into attempting to help the women around us grow into better, bigger human beings. We would be lifting each other up through difficulties instead of making it even harder to deal with problems. We would be encouraging each other every single day and highlighting each other’s positives and passions. Instead of hating on a fellow woman for her success, celebrate her, be happy for her!

I know it’s difficult, you will constantly have the urge to gossip and bash someone else. Regardless, if you have nothing good to say, don’t say anything at all! Let me start, I want to compliment J.K. Rowling for sharing her imagination and truly magical stories. You have changed me as a person and my mindset along with millions of people all around the world. You’ve put your heart and soul into your writing and I just can’t thank you enough. Please, compliment and empower the women around you and spread some girl love around! Together, we can make a change towards women’s attitudes towards each other. I, for one, am going to start thinking twice before I say anything to others about someone else.

This post was inspired by Lily Singh’s (IISuperwomanII on Youtube) most recent campaign called #GirlLove that aims at changing how women perceive each other. It’s honestly something I never thought about changing and the video truly made me think about how I view the girls around me. All proceedings from the video will be donated to the Malala Fund, an organization aimed at providing education for girls. Please share the video and support the campaign in anyway you can, we’re all helping make the world a more positive place, one step at a time!

#GirlLove