There has been no shortage of girls in my life. Afterall, I was born a girl and am now a woman, a rather older woman hoping to continue getting older for at least a while.

I had a mother and I’ll take a wild guess and say that you have or had one as well. But I was also born into a family with three girls, me being the fourth (and no brothers). And, at one time seven aunts (though two died in childhood). I had 10 female cousins but only two lone male cousins. Already there’s a surplus of females running around. I gave birth to two more of them. 

Then, when I was going into 10th grade, my parents sent me to a private school, a girls’ school. You might think I’d had it with the girl thing. I thought I would have too, but it didn’t turn out that way. 

It might be hard to understand, but in many ways, I found it liberating. We wore plaid jumpers, short-sleeved buttoned-down shirts with Peter Pan collars, and saddle shoes. It sparked rebellion… and creativity. Under those jumpers were the wildest available knickers we could find. 

Competition for the male gaze all but eliminated, we developed life-long relationships and a yearning for a place in a woman’s newly-liberated space in society. Some of us did just that right away, some of us did over time.  It left an indelible mark on me.

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Last summer girls had a moment. For a while there, pink reigned supreme! I, like many, drove myself to a real movie theater (as opposed flopping myself onto the couch) to see Barbie. It was a week-day afternoon so I half-expected the theater to be empty. It wasn’t. There I found my sisters. Old and young, alone, in pairs and in groups. In pink and not. There was something of a conspiratorial air to us all as we settled into our seats to enjoy being saturated with yet more pink for a few hours. 

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I’m not sure what exactly inspired this pink background. It just came to me one day and I couldn’t shake it. So, I indulged myself. Every time I came into the studio and saw it, I smiled. It was like sitting next to my girlfriends in the auditorium or passing notes about the physics teacher. All warm and fuzzy. 

And so I’m dedicating this painting to all those girls in my life and yours. Our mothers, sisters, mentors and friends. The grandmothers who fed and inspired us. Our forbearers who squeezed us out of their wombs into the light of this beautiful world or ours. For them, for the girls.

Painting: For The Girls © Lissa Banks 2024