Because I Am a Girl

Because I am a girl, I'm dissuaded from learning about science, dismissed, ridiculed, shot down. Because I am a girl, my mother had to teach me how to wield my keys as a weapon in a world of men she doesn't trust. Because I am a girl, I will have opportunities denied me. I will be scorned when I speak up in conversation. I will be thought of as less, and why? Because I am a girl.