From a young age, women receive messages about how to be nice, compliant, accommodate others, and gain approval, both from the families and the communities they grow up in. Messages are often subtle and not conscious. They can sound like: Be nice to your brother. Don’t interrupt. Stop being so dramatic. Why are you being so difficult? Don’t you care how I feel?
These messages can hinder women’s natural development of a sense of self-worth and entitlement. Healthy self-worth involves cultivating a level of self-acceptance that validates a full range of desires and feelings. Healthy entitlement requires self-compassion, accepting negative feelings without self-criticism, and making mistakes without shame. Not developing self-worth and entitlement early on can lead to bigger problems as girls grow into women.
Check out the rest of Yoon’s interview HERE.