21 Comments
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rachel kess's avatar

Reading this in the way you wrote it was like really hearing you speak it, as if I was sitting a listening and hugging you but also cheering. Or like watching someone paint on a giant canvas and you’re just seeing each brush stroke make the picture more clear. I could quote so much from this piece that I felt in my veins. The rollercoaster of life, the individualism mixed with being notably aware of the collective people and world around you, the ass backwards expectations and treatment of women. Also, I love yoga and at least half the yoga people I meet, but f that teacher and her ex-finance bro sidekick 😭 glad the other students saw through the extremist insanity with you. Anyways, you are a brilliant writer and your words are powerfully speaking for all of us

June's avatar

your comments always leave me in a puddle, Rachel!!!

rachel kess's avatar

πŸ₯ΉπŸ’—πŸ’—πŸ’—πŸ’—

Makenna Rae's avatar

You’ve done it again, I felt all of this. You’re so incredibly strong. And right. It’s infuriating and I wish the adults in your life hadn’t failed you so often.

β€œSuddenly, with the threat of my impending absence, people decide to show up. That’s cool, I guess.” FELT this. Heavy. Crazy how that can go.

Thank you for sharing a part of yourself with us. It’s so so real.

June's avatar

I write for me and for us all, I know I’m not alone in these experiences and I hope that by sharing with candor that I can make other beautiful souls feel seen and validated in how they too can relate. Thank you for reading and commenting, Makenna, I appreciate you so!

O L I V I A's avatar

you captured this PERFECTLY. you managed to make my blood boil (which is a compliment!) "Now we have a child rapist as president. Chosen over a woman. Who’s surprised?" hits so hard!!

June's avatar

my blood’s been boiling about this I think since the day I was born, thank you for coming together to make my life and the girlhood I experience now so rich and validating!

ella?'s avatar

What an incredible piece of writing. To be a woman is to fall apart silently and pick yourself up without any recognition but your own sheer will and strength to keep going. By the time we realise how deep the patriarchy seeps into our everyday lives it’s too late and people always say we can’t change it now, but i hope in the future our daughters and granddaughters can have a real chance at a beautiful life with so much less pain. What you went through was so painful to read, and as someone who has gone through similar experiences you are so unbelievably strong for taking all that and pouring it into your writing. You’re amazing! i admire your work so much πŸ’—

June's avatar

oh my darling, ella. i don’t know what I did in my life to be deserving of beautiful comments like this, but I will always, always be grateful.

i was worried this piece might be read as a series of complaints against women, but i am overjoyed to know that my intention has landed here because i know my stories are not unique. we have all been that little girl, that teenager, that young adult just doing her best in a world that was not built for her.

thank you.

ella?'s avatar

if anything i saw it as sort of a love letter to women, its so passionate and it comes from a place of deep love for us all. Your intention landed perfectly. it’s such a touching piece, never forget how talented you are. 🫢🏻

June's avatar

Thank you thank you thank you this means so so much to me!

Trapped Renaissance Woman's avatar

It’s an art to be able to list life’s grievances as a woman lyrically yet so matter of factly, almost like an eloquent grocery list of the traumas we never intended to put in our carts yet must inevitably pay the price for. I could relate to so many of these unfortunately and I’m sure many women will see themselves in your beautiful writing. Never stop sharing your gift!

June's avatar

get me out of that grocery PLEASE haha, no but it’s true, this piece like everything I write may be rooted in personal tales from my life, but they represent (I hope) something bigger that we have all experienced in our own ways, the fight to survive, the fight to be seen, the potential within us all to end the battle and find peace for and with ourselves.

i promise, I have found a home in writing that I will never leave.

Karin Smilović's avatar

I don’t remember ever being as saddened, infuriated, touched, brought to tears and completely broken down by a piece of writing ever in my life.

I could write a response as long as this article, but I’ll try to keep it as sweet and short as I can.

June, you’re an INCREDIBLE woman. The sheer strength of your determination is something that’ll keep me going even when I don’t feel like it. To see and hear so many awful things and come out the other side as the person you are today is proof that people can survive anything and still be as soft, delicate and kind as ever.

I’ve seen myself in many passages you’ve written. I’ve been both a victim of the system and the violator, thinking other women are competition and I need to fear them. Now I know there’s nothing to compete for, certainly not men. We’re all uniquely beautiful, special and good enough as we already are, without needing to change for ANYONE’s validation.

Know that your existence has changed my little life. This piece will stay with me for a very long time. Much love, June ❀️

June's avatar

oh Karin, as you have undoubtably changed mine… there aren’t words enough as usual for my gratitude at your presence and this comment.

this piece in particular is a love letter to us all, it poured out of me after reading several passages from fellow women writers here who are trying to uncage themselves from the limited beliefs bestowed upon them by scared little boys.

we, I, and most of all you are powerful and perfect just as you are. never ever ever ever doubt that for even one fraction of a second!

Karin Smilović's avatar

Send you an infinite amount of love and hugs ❀️

June's avatar

receiving with tears and an open heart!

Ella Thompson's avatar

This was incredible and so needed. to be a woman is to be EXHAUSTED. from everything demanded from us, from everything we’re not allowed to be.

β€œThese are the women who saved me. They were not all saved in return.” hit me so hard. i hope you know that your words save so many people, such as myself, daily. <3

June's avatar

It is EXHAUSTING, we must rally our strength and use it only to protect our boundaries and exercise our immense freedom in this life…. taking back what has always been just ours. You helped inspire this piece, I hope you know that!

Ella Thompson's avatar

my whole belly just flipped. i don’t know what to say other than it is an honour to inspire such beautiful words from such a beautiful woman <3

The Daily Fix's avatar

"The world is not kind to the women who birth it." This is a breathtaking and brutal honest. You’ve managed to trace the line from a 6-year-old on a stair landing to a professional world that still asks women to "fill the gaps."

It’s a rallying cry for every woman who has ever been told she was "too much" or "not enough." Thank you for refusing to be quiet.