slag, slut, whore, slapper, skank, hooker, tramp, tart, hoe and promiscuous.
These are only a few of the many words thrown at women (and of course men, but in this case I'm writing about women) by men, but even sadder is the fact that other women are actually referring to one another in this way. Now I will admit, as everyone has in the past I will have been out and seen a women do something that to me is pretty foul but as I have grown in age and also as a person I have learnt this is no way to act towards anyone! Never judge a book by it's cover and all that malarkey.

Now in the media and in society in general, women are portrayed as needing to be pretty little feminine things that should be "seen and not heard" now LUCKILY, this is changing and it's absolutely fab that everyone is allowed to be the person that they want to be. However, I still think that deep down a large number of people still think women should be women and men should be men. Now don't get me wrong; I wear make up and do my hair and dress in skirts and pretty things, but I also like to wear shirts and jeans and go out looking like poo without being judged and talking openly about sex like men do without being considered disgusting.

I think sex especially is a huge taboo subject still and I know a lot of people feel uncomfortable talking about it, and some of you will probably feel uncomfortable reading this. I understand to a lot of people it is very private and obviously I keep my love life and sex life to myself, but I have been brought up by my parents to be open and honest and this is something I will encourage my children to do if I have them. I know a lot of people have always been confused by how openly I will speak about this area, with friends and family. Of course I have lines and boundaries of what I say and what I don't, but if men can joke about sex with their friends then why can't women? 

What disgusts me the most is that, women should stick up for one another. If a girl likes to have sex and considers her own safety and the safety of others, then in all honesty what is she actually doing wrong? N-O-T-H-I-N-G. If a girl wants to save herself for marriage and is still a virgin at 23 WHO CARES, these are not the qualities we should judge people on. You should never judge someone because of how they dress or how they act as it is their body and their choice and as human beings we should respect this. 

I can handle when a man insults me, yeah it sucks but who cares really? However, when another female decides to tell me or others around me that I am a slag or whore and that I have 'no morals' that is when I start to get peeved. What gives you the right, to go around and judge me because I am not the same as you? Being confident around men and being confident within myself as a person and my sexuality does now mean that I am a slag or a lesbian or anything else. That is another thing that annoys me, if you tell a female she is attractive the automatic thing is "oh she is obviously a lesbian" NO YOU ARE JUST ATTRACTIVE NEXT TIME I WON'T BOTHER TRYING TO LIFT YOUR SPIRITS YOU UNGRATEFUL GREMLIN. 

As a teenager; I hated myself. I seriously hated myself, I'd look at myself and just sob because I was so disgusting to myself. I looked like shit, and thus constantly belittled myself and told myself I was ugly. Now I am an adult and have learnt more about myself, I have learnt that actually I am not ugly. I am beautiful on the inside, I don't judge people for who they are, if you need my help and I don't even know you I will be up until 4 in the morning trying to help you, I will make myself look like the biggest moron EVER just to see you crack a smile. So yes; I am no Mila Kunis, but I am beautiful in that I can now look at myself and think "yeah I'm alright" and because I am now comfortable with myself people think this makes me some sort of dirty prostitute? No, it doesn't work like that. 

If you are a man who voices your opinions on how women should dress and act, SHUT UP. You are not a women, nor will you ever experience being a women. I don't care if you don't like my leggins and if you think that all girl's should be 'natural' then ask why a girl stops making an effort if she doesn't do anything with her appearance. If you are a female who voices your opinions on women, KEEP THEM TO YOURSELVES. You wouldn't like if a female came up to you and said "you're speaking confidently to a group of men, you're such a tramp" nonononoNO it doesn't work like that. Also if you EVER use anything a women wears, says or does to justify rape or sexual/domestic abuse; You need to reevaluate your life and stop acting like you are perfect, because trust me sweetheart. You aren't.
I'm sorry that this has been such a rant post, but it is one subject I feel strongly about. I am sick and tired of women feeling that no matter what they do is wrong; if you're shy and hide your body then you're frigid and don't try hard enough and 'no man will want you' and if you actually think 'I am a beautiful queen bee' and feel good about yourself then you are a disgrace. So ladies (and gents) stop making each other feel like shit please.
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I've seen quite a few bloggers do posts like this, and it really appeals to me. I always found at school, I was a bit of a recluse. I was one of the kids that was basically invisible or people knew about me for the wrong reasons, and so I always felt very alone and lost. This sounds like a sob story when in actual fact that's not what this is at all, I was your typical average kid in school- I got by. I just put my head down and got on with it, but I think that if I could go back to when I was 13/14 and have a conversation with myself I definitely would and this is some of the stuff I'd tell myself.

Spread your wings more- Throughout school I basically stuck with the same group of friends from year 5 until I finished school and this in itself caused quite a few falling's out and issues for everyone, but especially me because I always want to please people and I am very easily upset by what people say. So I'd tell myself to branch out and make new friends and not be scared, when I got to high school I did this on a very miniature scale and there are a lot of people I'm so happy I'm friends with now and some I wish I would have been friends with at the time. The true friends I have, I wouldn't swap for anything.

Don't let them see you're hurting and don't care what others think- This leads back to the fact that I'm very easily upset and so it always meant people knew that they were hurting me and so it made me an easy target. If I would have been stronger and not cared what others thought about me, I would have probably had a much easier time through school.

Be honest with your parents- As a person, I struggle greatly in being honest with how I feel and I am extremely stubborn in that no matter how much I am suffering, I won't tell anyone how I'm feeling. I only have one person I have in life that knows everything about me and this is because we went through a lot of dark stuff together so she knows everything because she lived it with me. I wish when I was hurting in school and suffering that I would have been honest with my mum because it makes life so much easier and I know she'll help me with anything that she can.

Needing help DOES NOT mean you're weak- This is pretty self explanatory, I always felt the need to suffer in silence throughout school because I felt other peoples problems were more important than mine and I hate when people fuss or worry over me and so I just dealt with it. If I ever really needed help I always felt so ashamed of myself, but after personal growth I realise needing help probably makes you a stronger person.

It gets better and results and school isn't everything- I constantly need to remind myself that whenever I'm feeling really low, it will eventually get better. It may take months or years, but it will get better. Until I finished my a-levels this year, I believed that my results were everything and when I didn't do as well on my a-levels as I had hoped I was so angry and disappointed in myself. I felt like the biggest failure and I didn't see anything ever progressing for me (I am a HUGE drama queen in some ways if you haven't already guessed) but it is only recently that I have realized that doing my a-levels hasn't really helped me in anyway. Yet I have managed to bag myself a job that I absolutely love, all because of my personality as I had no proper experience for the job. So never give up!

I kind of rambled on a bit too much with this and I didn't actually expect to think of as many pointers as I did, so go me! I hope for any of you still in school this helps you in some way or another, because I know how tough school can be and if any of you need to ramble, chat or moan about your school life or life in general. Then my email is in an info box at the side and I also have a twitter (AshleighRhiane) and I'm honestly happy to chat!
Have any of you got anything you'd tell your younger self?

Have the only photo from my prom that I can tolerate!