Advertisement

Canadian teen shares her thoughts on what it means to do things ‘like a girl’

Earlier this year, Always released its #LikeAGirl ad campaign to help break down the negative stereotypes associated with doing something ‘like a girl’ and to help boost young girls’s confidence in themselves and their abilities.

The video immediately received a flurry of applause for the positive message it sent and praise for reclaiming the phrase as a message of empowerment.

One of the young women in the video is Emily Papsin, a 19-year-old student from Toronto, Ont. who is featured between 1:57 and 2:36.

Yahoo Canada Shine recently chatted with Papsin to get her take on what it means to do things ‘like a girl’ and where she gets her inspirational self-confidence from.

Yahoo: How did you become involved in the campaign?

Emily: I got the chance to be involved with the campaign entirely by accident. I happened to be with my family in Los Angeles and my aunt, who was friends with the casting director, was called by the director who asked if maybe she wanted to bring her kids in for the audition. My aunt, thinking that maybe her kids would need a little bit of extra support from their older cousin, and that maybe I might have some fun just having a bit of a Hollywood experience, she thought I might find it cool. She asked if I wanted to come along as well and so we ended at all going to audition. I actually tried to bail out of it seconds before I was supposed to go in. I talked my aunt and I said, “Are you seriously going to make me do this?” and she had some choice words for me and that made my decision for me so I ended up auditioning and ended up getting called back and getting the part.

Y: What sort of response have you received since the campaign started?

E: It's been overwhelmingly positive. When the ad was released I elected not to post anything on my own just to sort of gauge how my environment would respond because I knew that it would be something that did reach a lot of people. I guess I didn't realize the scale. Eventually the people who knew me realized that I was in it and it was just an overwhelming response to the message that it had.

Y: You're quite young still, but you seem to have such a strong sense of awareness of yourself and confidence in your skin. How have you managed to cultivate that?

E: Honestly, it's been a very recent development. I think everybody has good days and bad days with respect to sort of every facet of yourself, I mean you're not always going to walk in the door feeling a hundred percent, but I think in the past two years I've really sort of realized that it's much more satisfying to aim for a comfort and satisfaction with everything that I do regardless of whether or not it's perfect and I think that attitude contributes a lot to sort of how I go about my everyday life. I try to do the best I can and as long as it's enough for me I hope that it's enough for anyone else.

Y: Has there been anyone in your life who’s helped you get to that comfort level and that understanding?

E: I would have to say my father he's been by far the strongest influence in my growing up. [My gender] never was a factor in his determination of my capacity as a human being. The fact that I am a girl has no bearing on what he thinks I'm capable of. He simply sees me as his daughter and has ensured that I understand the fact that I am limited exclusively by the limits I set for myself not anyone else.

Y: Is there anyone you yourself in particular look up to? Is there celebrity or anyone else in the public eye you think is doing a good job of breaking down the stereotypes and saying girls can do anything?

E: I don't know. I’m not really tuned into the media, but I think that a lot of female celebrities and even male celebrities… It doesn't take women to lead women. It's just as important I think for men to realize that we’re all speaking for women now. The majority of people that I hear about, when they do have an opinion, it's a progressive one.

Y: Is there anything in closing that you’d like to say to anyone who's struggling with their own self-confidence and being in their own skin, making their way in the world?

E: I think we all are human and in that sense it doesn't really make a difference if you're a boy or girl or really doesn't make a difference how you classify yourself - we are, as human beings, capable of anything. So even if you doubt yourself or if you think that some days you're less than you could be, perhaps you're not having the greatest day but that does not mean that you can't be. It just means that maybe today is not enough.

Y: And what do you tell yourself when you're having a bad day?

E: I tell myself that regardless of what happens today, the sun will rise tomorrow. It doesn't matter what happens - it could be the worst, most disastrous day but it's just something so inevitable that the sun is going to rise and you're going to have another day - you're going to get to try again. I think that whenever I just absolutely blow something.

For more amazing, inspirational young people, check out the videos below.