Little girl,

Don’t put those glass slippers on your feet. They don’t fit. They don’t belong. I know how much you long to be a damsel in distress, like those girls in cupcake dresses whose lives are always a mess until their prince seals their fate with pretty words and a kiss. Don’t envy those girls trapped in the TV screen. They don’t exist. Don’t put those glass slippers on your feet. They will break and cut your skin. This is the start of a long journey, and your path calls for hiking shoes.

Little girl, you have so many thoughts. They bounce around inside your skull like ping-pong balls. Take off your shoes, just for a moment. Press your feet into the soil. Inhale. Exhale. I will teach you how to ground yourself.

Put your shoes on. Do not be timid. Where we’re going, “shy” does not exist. You are not shy. You are brilliant and audacious and someone—something—has stolen your voice. Raise your hand and speak before someone speaks for you. You don’t have time to lose yourself.

Little girl, feel your emotions and feel them fully. Don’t bottle them up. If something rattles you, they will sizzle and foam until you explode. If you feel weary, find a patch of soft grass. Sprawl out and cry. Tear the grass up with your hands. I want to see dirt under your nails. Kick the air like it hurt you and twist and writhe till your body goes limp. Where we’re going, big girls must learn to cry.

If on this journey you see a flower you like, don’t just walk past it. Stop and admire it. Tuck it into your pocket. Pluck the petals and drop them on the ground like fairy dust. Or share the flower with someone you love. This is a rocky, barren path. You must be gracious. If the earth offers you a gift for your troubles, bow your head to the ground and thank it.

Little girl, I know you’re aching to see the end of this path. Walk slower now. This is not a journey to be completed, this is a journey to be enjoyed. Because once it ends, this path will disappear and you will never find your way back. I beg you to gather every flower you find and make bouquets out of them. Use your voice, raise it. Louder. Feel the grass. Feel every bruised knee and broken heart and warm embrace. Because one day this path will end, and there will be no trace.

Little girl, put on your hiking shoes.

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