Last week saw us have the pleasure of hosting a work experience placement student, a 15 year old female who showed great maturity and insight in to the variety of topics Thrive Safe presented her. Many adults struggle to embrace some of the content our business explores, yet this student, only 15 years old, was asking questions, applying learning and able to identify their own views of their observation of society.
Amongst other activities across the week, this young student attended a few talks that I presented including topics of sexual harassment in the workplace, mental health awareness, recognising misogyny and microaggressions. She not only listened to these talks but spoke to me after about some experiences she could relate to and her perspective.
However, this week wasn't just about her observing our work - she also contributed with some ideas for our future social media content and more. Regardless of whether she works in this field or not in the future, her compassionate and insightful mind will take her far!
This student has written some powerful words for our blog which I have permission to share with you:
"Being a young female in society is hard.
I have witnessed many things like anorexia and self harm.
Females can't walk down a road without men trying their disgusting charms.
We normalise these things.
We normalise girls being sexualised.
We normalise men touching our waist as they dominate past.
We normalise females getting called slurs like 'slag', judged so fast.
Does the thought not cross your mind, if we were a boy, we would be celebrated at last?
We normalise receiving unwanted, unsolicited pictures as if we had asked.
We normalise girls getting dress coded,
told to 'cover up, you're being a distraction',
while boys are shirtless.
Why are they masked?
These things may not sound normal but to me they are.
Females are more than just a "wife".
We are powerful.
We are peaceful.
We are a rose who keeps our thorn.
We are not the problem and we are not the distraction.
But most importantly, we are whatever we want to be."
Thank you.
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