It started, with small things as many other things, both writing and publishing them, at least for me it was the case.
And like many good stories do, it started with a picture. I was halfway through a cup of chai, scrolling, reading and doing nothing maybe, that I saw a post from Girl Museum. I had never heard of it before. I wanted to pass, like we mostly do, but perhaps something in it glowed and made me google it and reach out, and not expecting much. But sometimes, the Internet can surprise you with kindness. It was the ‘sometimes’.
That’s how I found myself here, writing, learning, growing. Girl Museum isn’t just a space that preserves stories; it’s one that connects them, as I believe we are far too interconnected than we think. It stitches together voices from different corners of the world until they hum in the same language, girlhood.
Girlhood, to me, is the art of becoming. It’s resilience, empathy, love, stories. The way we turn fear into ink to write and hope into songs we whisper. Through Girl Museum, I’ve seen how stories, from artists, dreamers, wanderers, form a quiet rebellion against silence, and specifically forced silence.
In my country and countries like mine, things are limiting, so much so that you feel suffocated, and among all these bizarre, writing has always been a form of breathing for me. But in spaces like this, it becomes more: a conversation, and that’s what we need to build a better world and bring change. Conversations etween me and the world. Between cups of chai and the glow of my screen. Between those who are way too devided.
Writing is always against maps, making borders, building walls, I believe. And spaces, like Girl Museum, in which we don’t have to agree on everything, but have time and tolerance to listen and thrive, can bring and lead a change, a big one.
All this from one small picture. Proof that even across distance, girlhood finds a way to speak, and to be heard.
-Tahera K.
Guest Writer
Girl Museum