I am like other girls.

I am like other girls. I change my hair after a break up and I am in love with Timothée Chalamet. I binged watched Love Island but also Annabel Crabb’s Mis-Represented. I can talk for hours about deuxmoi and pop culture but I can also talk to you in detail about the Rwandan Genocide and how it represents the long term impacts of colonisation, how imperialism has devastated third world countries, and how little responsibility we, as westerners, have taken for our actions.

I can tell you all the reasons I am in love with Drew Starkey but also all the reasons why Australia’s refugee policy makes me ashamed to be an Australian, violating the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights and taking no time to acknowledge that it’s pure, serendipitous luck, that we were born into white privilege and not into their war torn and persecuted countries.

I will post endless selfies on Instagram but also my writings, opening myself up like a cadaver on a table to be inspected and learned from. Or implorations to politically educate yourself, trying to provide insight into Australian politics so that, come election, we know the ramifications of who we vote for.

I enjoy wearing make-up and dressing up for a night out, but I will also post make up tutorials while talking about living with anxiety. How I manage my depression and that it is only through seeing a psychologist and taking medication that I have started to take active steps in looking after my mental health. Or I’ll switch my neon orange heels for sneakers, marching and protesting for what I believe in, as I scream, “black lives matter. Indigenous lives matter.”

I will go to the bathroom with other girls to gossip and talk about how cute X looks tonight and, “no you should not text Y, babe you deserve better,” but also because there’s safety in numbers and we girls feel unsafe when alone at all times of the day, no matter the situation.

I am like other girls. I post fire emojis and say, “yes queen,” and my DMs remind me of a nightclub bathroom with the amount of women hyping me up.

I am like other girls in that I love fiercely and openly and proudly.

I am exactly like other girls and I am so very happy to be.