i am so sick in living in a dichotomy

enforced with the stereotypes that we live with

because if a girl is beautiful

she is under estimated

and an object seeking ownership for worth

for somehow she is not seen as a person

as if the mascara glues her eyes shut to global issues

thick medical textbook pages and marine diagrams

because beautiful girls don’t have brains

and brainy girls aren’t beautiful

i get sick in the stomach to think

that if i raise my hand in class,

put in the work to make my report card outstanding

and question boundaries placed by people who met satisfaction saturate their curiosity

i will be seen as a girl with brains

rather than a beautiful girl who finds herself challenging stereotypes she has found wrong and working her hardest to fight her way up to the top