This week, 18-year-old Anyssa Richardson shared a story on Twitter about a small but powerful gesture that for her represented “girls supporting girls.” She allegedly asked “this girl” where she got her nails done, and the girl in response not only told her, but googled the address for her and showed her the picture of the building.
“It was so cute, it made my day,” she told Buzzfeed. The tweet resonated with people and quickly went viral (at time of writing it has over 20,000 retweets.) Now, girls around the world are contributing their own examples of times girls went out of their way to help one another out.
There are stories of girls in bathrooms.
There are retellings of generous gifts.
https://twitter.com/yifanstwt/status/895047345162813440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.buzzfeed.com%2Ftanyachen%2Fgirls-who-go-the-extra-mile
There are times when girls were just trying to help each other look their best.
Women also began drawing attention to life-saving examples of girls supporting girls, speaking out to prevent a possible sexual assault, to make each other feel safer, and to check to make sure they’re okay.
If you have a spare minute, scrolling through the submissions is worth it. It can often feel like our society pits women against one another, or that in order to rise in the ranks we must do so by stepping on each other. This viral tweet is just one more small example that supporting and lifting one another up — in both tiny, seemingly innocuous ways and in brave, protective ways– is powerful, and has long-lasting consequences.