We should all be like girls at festivals

Be confident in owning your self-worth and recognizing it

| UPDATED

After a weekend at Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago I came to a great realization – we should all be like girls at music festivals. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that many music festivals are judgement free zones where attendees are able to freely express themselves.

Many view festivals as a place full of hippies and basic white girls. They see these people as having, as Janis Ian from Mean Girls would say: an awesome time, drinking awesome shooters, listening to awesome music, and then just sitting around soaking up each others awesomeness. Once I got to know some of the people that surrounded me and soaked up the atmosphere of the festival I realized that the space I was in was much more than all of that. It was a time where girls could feel safe in one another’s company and truly be at peace with who they were.

Girls were in crop tops with low rise shorts, jean overalls and swimsuits, long dresses and strappy sandals, baggy t-shirts with athletic shorts, and even just shorts with pasties. Girls were wearing whatever the hell made them happy and comfortable. Is that not what we all want to be able to do everyday? They were not cowering to what would be deemed as appropriate – they were wrapping themselves up in their own self-confidence and wearing whatever exposed that confidence best.

At the end of the second day a girl was walking down the street, completely topless, saying to those who passed her by with shocked stares, “What? Have you never seen a pair of breasts before?” Sure, her friends were helping shield her as she passed cops for fear she would get in trouble for this Free The Nipple act, but she was owning it. She was taking her womanhood and putting it in the faces for all to see. She did not give one fuck. It was beautiful.

Not only could you see the confidence in the girls from what they did or did not wear, but it was also evident in their body language. Music festivals are not the place for competition or stereotypical girl-on-girl cattiness. Even in the rush of crowds to get that front row spot, girls were helping one another. Whether they were apologizing after a harsh accidental shove, sharing water, or complimenting each other’s outfits, the girls helped build each other up. I watched the countless amounts of times girls wrapped their arms around one another or sang into each other’s eyes, taking in the common beauty of song lyrics and their meanings. I have never seen a more helpful and caring group of complete strangers.

So, let’s all try to bring out our inner festival girl daily. Be confident in owning your self-worth and recognizing it. Do this by wearing whatever is comfortable for you. By living in the moment and recognizing that we are all equals. By respecting and uplifting your fellow girls.

By not giving a single fuck.