Today on Dayton Youth Radio, we have a story about how self-empowerment can be the greatest gift a teenager can give to themselves.
My name is Hannah Madison. I'm a junior at Springfield High School. I love eating applesauce, apple pie, and apple fritters, but biting into a whole apple? No thanks!
I live at home in Springfield, Ohio, with my mom, Rachel, my dad, Mike, and my two dogs, Jill and Josie. I have two older brothers: Lucas is 21 and Zack is 18, and he's at college in New York. I feel like my parents did a pretty good job of putting me and my brothers on equal ground. I played with Legos like my brothers, but mine were pink and purple instead of red and blue. I had video games just like them, but mine had Disney princesses while theirs had Mario and Luigi.
My story is about the fact that I am furious about the way our society raises boys and girls. I genuinely feel the effects of those biases in my life every day, and I hate it.
The one experience I always think about is from elementary school. Whenever there was something heavy that the teachers needed to carry, they always asked, "Are there some strong boys who can carry this?"
Why was it the expectation that these prepubescent boys, who couldn't even pack their own lunches, were more qualified to carry a cooler full of sandwiches than me? Why couldn't I carry it?
Those thoughts have stayed with me my entire life. It took a global pandemic for me to prove to myself that I could be the strong one. When I was stuck at home, spending hours each day alone in my bedroom, I decided it needed an update. And I knew that only one place could give me what I wanted: IKEA.
The first thing I bought was a bed frame. My mom and I masked up and drove to Columbus to pick it up. There was one box left and it was huge. There were no strong boys around to lift it for me, so I did it myself. Lifting the box again to get it in the trunk of the car just added to the high. I wanted to drive straight to my elementary school and show those teachers what I was capable of.
And that bed frame was complicated. It had drawers, slats, internal supports – you name it. Definitely not a beginner-level project. It took us all day, but it turned out perfectly. I built a utility cart, a headboard, a lamp, an office chair, two bookshelves, and a desk.
I know how to use dowels to attach furniture together. I know how to assemble hinges so that a door swings without a hitch. I know how to use a drill without stripping the screw. When I stand in my room now, I get to look around and see things that I built. Gender should never determine what a person can or can't do. And the person I have to thank for that is my mom.
Hannah: Is there anything that you would want to say to parents that are just now having families with daughters and sons?
Mom: I would say, just raise the best person that you can and teach them to be kind to other people. Teach them that they can do anything they want to do. Make sure they know that you're going to love them no matter what.
Hannah: Do you think the way you raised me and Lucas and Zack ever differed between the three of us because I'm a girl and they're boys?
Mom: You're all extremely different. I gave you all the same opportunities, but, like, I would never have let them alone with scissors, glue, and glitter the way that I left you because you needed it in a way that they didn't."
"In today's world, there's absolutely no reason why there's anything that a guy can do that I can't do. It may sound silly, but building furniture from a Swedish store gave me the empowerment and confidence I needed to know that I can do anything. If you've ever built furniture, you know it feels amazing."