Writing Competition

If you live a life of being a girl, and then live a life being a boy, you will notice colossal differences. Being a girl, you have make-up and fashion, gossip and rumours. But then you also have sometimes underestimation. Just because you are a girl, some people think men work, and they support the family with money. The girl stays home and does housework and is the parent. Being a boy, you don’t have much make-up, and mostly take much less time over what you wear. That is completely fine, and in many cases, better.

I think being a girl has its ups and downs. Having community pressure about how you look is definitely a down. You don’t even notice it’s happening. But then knowing you have millions of little eggs which could turn into a baby, even if you don’t want a baby, it is still amazing, isn’t it?

In the ‘Olden Times’ people used to think, like I said, girls do the housework and parenting, and boys work. That’s why girls mainly stayed home, and sometimes didn’t go to school. They just got taught housework and knitting. It  really amazes me and elates me that we got past those times, and we are here now, where girls mainly get treated just like men. No disadvantages, no advantages. And, personally, that is how I think it should stay.

I have hardly any role models. I do believe that there should be a good, strong person to look up to, but you shouldn’t try and completely lead your life the way they did. You should live your life, not try and live someone else’s.

I do very much look up to Demi Lovato. She was heavily bullied in her school, abused and hurt, and she hid all this until about 16. People found out, and she went through many traumatic times, and slowly, slowly got better. Now she is a widely famous star, and is a judge on X-Factor, and still is strong.

I look up to my dad as well, very much. He is kind, nice, and very funny. He has always helped me along life’s stepping stones, and I am sort of dreading when I finally have to let go and lead my own path. But I do know he’ll always be there whenever I need him.

Being a girl is fantastic, but still, shouldn’t be classed as better than boys. We are totally different, but we should still should be treated exactly the same.

 

 

Thankyou, and I would just like to say, I think the idea is

 

really great! It is sad that not all girls, or boys for that matter,

 

in poorer countries don’t get the essential education they

 

need. I think it should be a person’s right everywhere that you

 

can get educated. It may be your choice if you take it or not,

 

but also it has to be the person who is going to be educated’s

 

descion. They are the one’s who will have to do it in the first

 

place.

 

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What I like about Being A Girl is that you are kind of more trusted than boys. Well, at least that’s what I think. I have thought that since I had started school, because then you know what more Boys and girls are like. And since then, I really do think my First Sentence on this is true.

What I also like about Being A Girl is Birthdays. And Christmas, and all those types of festive occasions. Even though those type of things come to boys as well, I just think that sometimes girls get more of what they want in some way. [I don’t know why, because of course I am not a boy. And even if I was, I would not enter anyway because why would I want a girls prize! I just kind of feel it. I don’t know how, I just do.]  And also that girls are more intelligent than boys. I worked that out because in the Top Group for Literacy, there are 4 girls and NO boys at all. Really, if you went to my School, and happened to some way Inspect our Classroom, you would see for yourself.

And also that girls get more good things, like books, and Bedside Lights. And also that Girls get to wear trousers and skirts, and boys just get to wear trousers on their legs. Because if they wore skirts, they would seriously look weird.

 

​What I don’t like about Being A Girl is that I think boys have more fun in the Playground in School Playtime. They do these cool games called Manhunt that the girls don’t usually get to join in. And also because boys are kind of meaner and naughtier than girls, so if they do something good, the teacher would give them a sticker or something. While the girls do something good, the teacher only says ‘Well done’ or ‘ Good girl!’ or something like that. Now compare them.

 

 

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Yeah, so I’m a girl. That means a lot of things to me: that it is acceptable for me to wear a skirt, and that my voice is higher and I’m shorter than most of the un-girl population. It also means that my room is painted baby blue and that I have a dolls house, and that I love ballet more than anything else…

Well, not really. These stereotypes may be considered part of the female populace, but I know at least two boys who love ballet, and I’m sure plenty played with dolls, just as we have probably all fiddled around with matchbox cars. And I suppose skirts are really no different to the Scottish kilt. I’m not even that short. 

Some things, I just couldn’t be or do or have, without being a girl. Being a girl means I go to the school that I attend, instead of the male equivalent half a mile away, it means I have the friends that I do and that I wear the clothes I choose to wear. It also means I get cramps once a month and that I sing in the soprano part of my choir. In ballet, I’ll be on pointe and I don’t need to worry about supporting any weight but my own. Being a girl is a pretty trivial thing, most of the time; just because we have never known anything different. 

But sometimes, in some sort of moment when your brain goes really philosophical, you sit down and realize how special it is to be female. In being born a girl, you’ve already overcome the chance, which is just over 50% of being male – so you are already more rare and unique. In all honesty, however, you are so special because, with most women; anything they achieve, they are already defying what people thought they could do.

Once upon a time, a woman wouldn’t have a job of any status, she’d be owned by her husband, she wouldn’t be properly educated. If a girl goes to school and goes on to a good job, then she has already done what many people, once upon a time, would never have believed possible. If she marks a ballot paper and votes for a new Prime Minister or President, then she is doing what men said women were too weak to do.

To me, that’s really something. Just being a girl at school, right now, means that I am surpassing ancient expectations. Nowadays, there are far less pressures on women; but some things are still here. If you like a boy, and you ask him out – that’s too eager. Your average girl would flirt and sit around and wait for him to ask her…and in society, that’s not too keen. As a girl, you are expected to follow certain trends – you get told that you should wear makeup or high heels, follow fashions.

Boys don’t seem to have all this pressure on how they look, and that appeals to me sometimes – to not be told I should care.

Most of my role models are fictional characters, because these people are often far better than in real life. One of the women in a book that I admire greatly, is Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter series. The one thing that makes her special and unlike anyone I’ve ever met, is that she honestly doesn’t care about what other people think about her. She is brave, good, witty and loyal; and she is fighting against the Dark Lord wearing a necklace made of butterbeer corks and billywig earrings.

Another is Katherine Valentine, from Mortal Engines; because she was a strong female without being violent or coarse – she broke down barriers within “London”, she put cities that could feasibly kill her first, because of the civilians inside, and finished her mission with death, when she realised she could do no more, and when not doing so would kill a stranger who had more to give. Those are the heroes, of my books, but more special to me are girls like Sylvie (Sylvie and the Songman) or Clarice Bean – they are good people who I can be like, who I can achieve with and feel like they are completely real people.

So, yeah, I’m a girl. In some ways, that means nothing, and in others; well…it means the world.

 

 

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Jo is 13 years old. This was her entry for the 2012 Jump! Mag Writing Competition

 

 

 

I’m a scout and I go on a lot of camps every year. My favourite is a camp called Bivouac. It is a back to nature camp where we learn all sorts of useful survival skills and is great character building.

We set of very early on Saturday morning and travel, without tents, to the Forest Of Dean. We then build our own shelter and a fire. We cook all of our own food but we aren’t allowed certain foods because they are too processed.

There are four years to complete, Training, Assessment, Junior Leader and Junior Staff. On Training you are taught how to build your Bivvy (shelter) , how to make your own implements,  how to start a fire and keep it going, and how to cook on a fire when you don’t have any pans.

We were also taught basic first aid and other things you would need if stuck in the wild.

On Assessment we are tested on all the things we learnt last year. This time we have to do it by our selves and get points for skills in:

Building a Shelter

Building a Fire and keeping it going

Food you prepare

Identifying which are the Edible plants (you don’t have to eat them)

Direction Finder (2 methods)

Water Filter

Site Clearance

I’m not old enough yet to have completed the other two,  but hope to return next year and the year after.

This is a really fun thing to do and you find out a lot more about yourself and what you’re made of by challenging yourself like this.

 

Jo

Birmingham

Aged 13

 

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