Image from Girls Are Not Chicks coloring book


In Girls Are Not Chicks, Jacinta Bunnell and Julie Novak have come up with a coloring book that portrays girls in empowering and witty ways. Don't you just hate to be pinned down to a stereotype/someone's preconception of you?

They say:

We have had enough of books that make girls think that they are not any good.
We have had enough of books that make girls think that they are too young,
too old, too fat, too ugly, too bold, too loud, too independent.
We like books that ask girls to take pride in ourselves.
Those of us who have been raised as or identify as girls
have have often been given the idea that there is something wrong,
weak and limited about being a girl or woman.
This is not and never has been true.
Girls are not chicks. Girls are thinkers, creators, fighters, healers and superheroes.

- Jacinta & Julie

Check out the website here. View selected pages here.


The Green Door
By Annette Marie Hyder
Previously published in The Green Tricycle

I am restless,

having a hatred of
shackles,
perimeters,
definitions,
another's perception of one
which solidifies into walls
that make a prison,

having
a yearning for freedom,
the desire to escape
to the lonely secret places,
the moon my companion,
through the dark silent forest.

My eyes, twin Dianas,
bathe themselves
in the close huddled trees
in the cold night air
and the wide open sky.

Fix me not with your
Actaeon stare,
pinning me to one shape.
I am no specimen
for your study
upon a mounting board.

My spirit hand
turns the handle
of the green door.