For centuries we have raised our women in a culture that both influences and critiques their every move. A child who grows up with aspirations of a large, loving family can be criticized for undervaluing her importance and reducing herself to the domestic role that was predetermined for her.

A girl who wants to become a doctor where her life is focused around her potential career and the empowerment and joy it brings to her is often considered cold hearted and negligent to her God-given role.

A Muslim girl that chooses to wear a hijab and to dress modestly is considered as an oppressed child who is solely ruled by her religion. A girl that chooses to wear short shorts and crops tops is often viewed as promiscuous and needs to respect herself instead of wearing such revealing clothing.

There seems to be no winning for women in a society that condemns everything that they could ever be or anything they could ever be able to achieve. Not only that, but it breeds internal loathing and resentment that begins at a young age and goes throughout adulthood.

Young girls learn to hate themselves under the pressures of society. They hate their hair, their body and their voice. They all learn early on that the pretty girls are airheads, smart girls are ugly, skinny girls are trying too hard, overweight girls need to diet.

These extreme insecurities primarily stem from photoshopped women in magazines as well as weight loss plans and beauty products that are constantly shoved down their throats.

These words, and all of these stereotypes placed upon women are incredibly harsh, and over time, will leave permanent scars on the impressionable children that hear them, scars that carry into adulthood and bar them from ever truly accepting themselves. These scars can cultivate eating disorders and body image issues, that lead to anorexia and plastic surgery. The hatred that they have for themselves pressures them to go to extreme measures to fit societal norms.

These decisions can cause them to permanently change who they are physically. No matter what they do, there will always be people out there who will criticize what they do and how they continue to act.

When they finally achieve what they perceive as the epitome of beauty and are finally happy with the way that they look, they’re condemned for being fake and refusing to love themselves the way they were before.

As a society, it is imperative that we reform the environment that girls grow up in. Instead of forcing them to follow a pre-determined path and to act a certain way with no real choice, we need to cultivate an area in which they can be what they want to be. They should be free of societal constraints where they can love themselves and love each other, follow their passions, dress and look the way they want to without fear of backlash.

Adults tell their sons and daughters that the stars are the limit and that they can be anything and do anything. Unfortunately, with a society as toxic as our own, it often isn’t true and is incredibly hard to achieve.

I need you all to ask yourself, do you perpetuate these stereotypes?

Can the jokes you tell and the comments you make reinforce the problem that many women in our society face?

And finally, what will you do to stop it?