Yogyaa Gupta 
In recent years, social media has given rise to a variety of light-hearted trends that revolve around what it means to be a girl. TikTok and Instagram are flooded with content around “I’m just a girl”, “girl maths” and “girl dinner”.
These trends depict a carefree, fun-loving version of femininity, portraying girls as obsessed with iced coffee, using quirky calculations to justify purchases or eating snack-like meals instead of balanced dinners. Charming and playful, these trends paint girlhood as a series of whimsical, harmless quirks. But is this depiction truly reflective of what it means to be a girl in this world?
Social media trends have certainly captured some wonderful aspects of being a girl. There is beauty in adorning oneself in makeup, choosing the perfect dress and enjoying the little things, like iced coffee or indulging in a fun, random meal. This is the lighter, more celebrated side of femininity, the side that’s all about self-expression, joy and the pursuit of aesthetic pleasure.
The carefree essence behind “I’m just a girl” is endearing because it allows women to revel in their experiences without taking themselves too seriously. It gives them the chance to celebrate their femininity and to own their “girly” side, which was often previously dismissed or mocked by mainstream culture.
However, this image of girlhood, while lovely, isn’t the whole story.
For every post about iced coffee or “girl dinner”, there is another side of girlhood that doesn’t make it to viral trends, a side filled with fear, vigilance and anxiety about survival. While girls celebrate the lighter aspects of life, they are often forced to live with the underlying reality that harm may be just around the corner. This is the side of girlhood that many are hesitant to talk about, but it is one that countless girls and women experience daily.
Girlhood is also clutching your keys in your hand, ready to use them as a weapon if you need to. Girlhood is not wearing that pretty dress in public because it might draw the wrong kind of attention. It’s always looking over your shoulder when you walk home, knowing that danger could lurk in the shadows.
Girlhood is crossing the street when someone follows too closely, speeding up your pace and calculating escape routes you shouldn’t need to – a study by ActionAid India in 2016 found that 79% of women in India faced some form of harassment or violence in public places.
Girlhood is the fear of being objectified and hyper-scrutinised before you even reach adulthood. It’s hearing that four women are raped every hour in India and in 95% of cases, it’s by someone they know.
As much as social media trends celebrate the “fun” of being a girl, the reality is that dressing up often comes with the concern of how others will perceive and potentially react to one’s appearance. It is exhausting to navigate a world that both encourages girls to look a certain way while also blaming them for the attention they receive.
The most brutal truth of girlhood is that violence isn’t just feared, it’s expected. From the moment a girl learns to walk alone, she’s taught that the world is a battlefield. Crimes like sexual harassment, assault and murder aren’t rare horrors, they’re our daily realities. One in every three women will face physical or sexual violence in her lifetime. One in three. Let that sink in. That’s not just a statistic; it’s a death sentence for dreams, security and peace of mind.
But the violence itself isn’t the final blow. It’s the aftermath that makes the pain unbearable – the gut-wrenching reality that those who commit these atrocities often walk away with nothing more than a slap on the wrist, if even that.
Turn on the news, and you’ll hear stories of girls and women brutalised, but how often do you hear about real justice being served? Rapists walk free, murderers roam the streets and for every one of them, there are countless more girls living in fear, knowing the system isn’t built to protect them.
Justice is a mirage, a distant concept that never quite materialises. Reporting an assault feels like standing before a firing squad, where your truth is picked apart, doubted and disbelieved.
Girlhood is not just wearing your fear like armour; it’s carrying the weight of an entire system that will fail you when you need it the most. It’s growing up knowing that even if you scream the loudest, the world will still cover its ears. This is the stark, horrific reality we rarely speak of, but it’s the one that defines what it truly means to be a girl.
How long can we keep pretending that girlhood is all fun and games when the unspoken reality is survival? What would it take for the world to finally acknowledge that behind every viral trend, there’s a girl carrying a burden far heavier than her iced coffee?
Yogyaa Gupta is a second-year English honours student at Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi.