2025-04-17 15:37:17

---

Every day, around the world, billions of girls wake up and fight battles no one sees. These battles are not always loud or dramatic. They’re not posted on social media every day, and they rarely make headlines, so no one cares. But these battles are real and constant. Being a girl is not easy. She carries expectations, fears, and pressures. She’s told, “This is normal. Every girl goes through this. You’re not unique. Will society change just for you?” — and the list goes on. A girl is expected to be everything, right from birth. She feels the pressure to please everyone — parents, peers, teachers, in-laws, and society. She is expected to smile in every situation, no matter how hard it is to even fake one. Every place she walks into comes with unspoken rules about how she should behave and live. Yes, we live in free nations, but do girls truly have freedom? Girls are expected to be “perfect” — polite, pretty, smart, strong — but never too much. She’s told to be polite, even to those who don’t deserve it. She’s told to be soft-spoken, even when someone is shouting or raising a hand at her. From childhood, girls are asked to help with household chores, babysit younger siblings, and sacrifice their own needs to comfort others. At school, college, university, or work, she may excel through her talent and hard work, yet people say she’s “too bossy,” or worse — that she got opportunities because of her looks, or that she’s sleeping around or seducing men for favors. One of the most personal and painful struggles a girl faces is with the mirror — seeing her own reflection. She’s taught to measure her worth by her appearance, not her identity. She is constantly surrounded by impossible beauty standards. She’s never “just enough” — always too thin, too curvy, too dark, too light, too short, too tall — and the list goes on. This internal war is fought in silence, eroding her confidence and sense of self. For most girls, even a simple walk from school, college, or work to home feels dangerous. They clutch their bags like weapons, pretend to be on phone calls, watch every shadow, send live locations to their families, and keep emergency numbers on standby. These survival strategies have become part of their everyday routine. It’s not always about what makes headlines. It’s about the unease, the stares, the molestation, and above all — the fear of not being believed. A girl is expected to be emotionally available to everyone — family, friends, partners. She’s taught to stay calm and keep smiling, even when her heart is breaking. This invisible mental load — the endless checklist of expectations and responsibilities — runs in the background of her life. She’s often called selfish if she dares to ask for happiness. But isn’t it wrong that she has to ask for it? She needs permission from her family, her partner, her in-laws to work. Even then, she’s told to not forget her “family responsibilities.” If she wakes up late because she’s tired, she’s lazy. If she rests while sick, she’s making excuses. She has to leave her home when she gets married — but has she committed a crime? Yes, she can work — but only if the office is near her in-laws’ house. Or better, work from home. And make sure she’s back before the deadline. If her important meeting clashes with a random family function, she’s expected to skip the meeting — because her work is never seen as important. This mental burden isn’t always about big life decisions. It’s the collection of small daily struggles that add up. There’s always a fear of making mistakes. And above all, the guilt of saying “no.” Even though mental health is widely discussed today, it still carries stigma for girls. If she expresses pain, she’s called “too emotional” or it’s dismissed as “hormones.” If she speaks up, she’s overthinking. If she stays quiet, she’s arrogant. If she needs a break, she’s self-centered. She handles everything with a smile, but deep down, the stress simmers. You can’t always see it, and it doesn’t always have a name. But it exists — inside her heart and mind. And then, to make it worse, there’s that loneliness that creeps in and fills the empty space in her heart. Some days she feels like no one understands her. On other days, she feels like no one even wants to. After all these fears — fear of rejection, fear of walking alone on an empty road, fear of being molested — and the most dangerous one, the fear of being misunderstood — she keeps going. She pushes through the mental fog and the inner doubts. Until one day, someone attends her funeral and says, “She shouldn’t have ended her life over such petty problems. She had such a comfortable life. So what if she had responsibilities? What if her husband beat her — that’s not a big deal.” Or maybe, someone kind might say, “She should have asked for help.” But have you ever been kind enough to ask if she’s okay? I want to ask this society — is it easy to end a life? No. It’s not. But sometimes, life becomes so hard that ending it feels easier. And to all the incredible women out there who’ve survived this difficult life — hats off to you. Because you’ve made it through all these quiet, unseen battles that people brush off as “normal.” These battles of being a girl are not imaginary. They are lived, felt, and survived — every single day. So here’s a message to this not-so-kind world: start listening more, judging less, and give girls the space to grow — without fear. And yes, next time you see her smiling, remember — she’s not just surviving.She’s fighting quiet battles with extraordinary grace.