My poem for international women’s week is about celebrating yourself and standing up for what you believe in. As a woman in science it’s difficult to be taken seriously, in every group project you have to constantly prove you’re good enough, so your ideas will be heard, even then when your ideas are heard they’re often claimed by someone else. It’s a constant struggle of trying to prove you’re good enough but also wondering why you should. My poem is something personal to me, it’s about taking my mind and body back, no one else should get to decide how I think or how I express myself, no one but me anyway. I hope that by celebrating my own achievements, which have been helped by all the amazing women around me, that I can inspire other women to celebrate themselves and to make their own choices for them and not because someone else has told them so. How can I be a role model for someone else, if I can’t be one for myself?

Are my mind and body mine?

"Don’t hope for so much" they say
But don't look at me and pity me
When you tell me I'm not good enough,
Instead you need to build me up.

I know that it’s unorthodox
To be living as a paradox
But that's because of you, stuck on your propriety,
I'm embarrassed by your compliments
That validate my competence
But they are what I need to feel confidence about the clothes I wear
And the way I do my hair.

"You're not like other girls,
Always playing with your pretty curls"
When did that become an insult
To be like other girls, that is not a result
It's discrimination
And the lack of education
About an inclusive ideology
Which appears to be like mythology

We're constantly defined
By numbers, we're clearly blind
If you want to define yourself
By a number then let me choose mine

The words that come from my mouth are the words that I mean,
the words that come from my mind tell you the way I want to be seen
Is your word more important than my word?
It's not
but why is it harder for me to be heard?

I have to prove my intelligence
So you will listen to my eloquence
And oppress me anyway
Because how I think isn't the right way.

But I can still speak
And your voices will never make me weak
No one but me decides what I do with my body and my mind
Because I am pretty, funny and kind
Thank you to the women who have taught me to be brave
To never give up on my thoughts, to never cave
Because I don't need you to tell me I'm intelligent
I don't have to be a lady, sublime and elegant
Not if I don't want to be
But why should I be anyone but me?
There's not enough women out there
Fighting to make the world fair
We’re more than just a diversity filler,
We are a staple pillar
For every girl on this planet
Who needs a little motivation,
And some female inspiration
This is your calling
So, wear the bond of love and friendship as your armour
And use it to fight a little harder
Let’s stand together and spread good karma
To everyone that needs it
For when I’ve lost my inner admiration,
I’ll look in the mirror for inspiration
And I’ll see you
Staring back at me
The women who built me from nothing
And supported me so I could achieve anything
I don’t need a rhythm, I don’t need a rhyme
I don’t need a reason to make you listen
Not all of my thoughts you need to christen
I make my own decisions
My choice matters
And it means everything to me
So, I’m choosing to take back my mind and body,
I’m choosing to love me for me.

Megan McKone