I grew up in a family with 2 sisters, 2 girl dogs, 11 girl cousins (5 boy cousins), and 4 aunts. As you can imagine, we were a bit of a girl power kind of family. My dad, having grown up with 4 big sisters, was not at all thrown by our emotions and requests for tampons when he ran to the store. His mom and also my maternal grandmother had college degrees. So, in our home, being a girl was not a hindrance. It was who we were and we were cool with it. The men in my family were heroes, but taught us we could be, too.

But one time when I was a preschooler, my mom said someone told her that I ran like a girl. To which she replied “well, she is a girl.”

Do you see where it starts?

Sexism starts when our children are…