This could potentially be a series of entires or snippets of my lifelong frustrations and anecdotes as someone who grew up in a predominantly-Catholic third world country.

As a child of a white father I was a pretty tall and big kid among my petite relatives and peers. This caused older men to constantly hit on me because I looked older than I was. We were going home from a beach trip and me and my cousins were riding at the back of my mother’s pickup truck. I was in a swimsuit and used a long scarf to cover my lower body. This was a long trip home and traffic where I come from can be slow and congested in certain areas. There was a group of men riding in the car behind us and kept looking at me. When my cousins noticed this they pressured me to take my coverup off. I did and they all cheered. But I felt guilty and ashamed from it. Now I’m older and more emotionally mature than I was I really am not afraid to speak up about certain issues especially when I come from a culture that is misogynistic and is full of victim blaming.

I see younger girls here online posting provocative photos and posts alluding to wanting relationships and sexual encounters. It really does bother me that the age of consent of my country is 12 years old. Children cannot properly process romantic feelings let alone sexual feelings at this age. What also bothers me is that parents and guardians allow their kids to be subjected to sexualization. Tell your kids to stay offline and teach them what is acceptable and appropriate and to encourage them to speak up when something unwanted does happen. Also, from experience, a lot of parents choose not to go forward when something does happen to their underage child in fear of being shamed. The world is truly flawed when you would rather defend your name rather than pursue justice. It’s really one of the reasons why I’m glad I left home.