Daughters, 2017 was the year for women—and that’s only the start of your journey

Dear daughters,

Maybe you don’t feel it now, because you’re young, but the winds of change are blowing—and those winds are at your back.

On the cover of Time Magazine’s 2017 Person of The Year issue is a powerful image of ‘The Silence Breakers.’ They represent the thousands of women who have come forward this year to say NO MORE and ME TOO and WE WILL NOT BE QUIET.

The revolution has come—and it’s all for you.

Because, darling daughters, as your mothers we wish for a future where your equality isn’t a question you will ever need to contemplate, because it is a given.

We wish for a future where your power isn’t something you ever need to doubt, because you see it reflected in the women all around you.

We wish for (and will work tirelessly for) a future where you will never wonder ‘what if,’ because all the dreams you haven’t even had time to imagine yet are just waiting for you to grab them and make them come true.

We wish that “grown up you” will remember the girl you are on this day. The one who runs barefoot in the grass—wild hair and all—not a care in the world. The one who is the queen of her imaginings, and who commands it if she wishes it to be so. The girl who is utterly perfect, exactly as she is.

We wish for a future where kindness and empathy triumph over intolerance and bigotry. Although these things may always be there like the dark side of the moon, we wish that you will recognize them for what they are and pay them no mind.

We wish for a future of gratitude for the little things—because when you pay attention to the way that first sip of morning coffee tastes or the way the grass smells in the dew or the way the sunlight bounces just so off the top of your daughter’s head—the worries of the world somehow seem further away.

We wish for a future in which your body will know no limits, and you will accept it and adore it for all the magnificent things it can do for you. It will be strong and it will make you fierce—just as you are now.

We wish for a future where you will know true, meaningful friendship and that you will be the kind of friend your tribe leans on in times of need. The friend who finds equal solace in abundance when you seek it.

We wish for a future where you will know love—the passionate kind but also the ordinary kind. The kind you slip into like a pair of comfortable shoes and feel like you could walk with forever.

We wish for a future filled with compassion. Daughters of 2018, may you never forget the way your childish self rests a hand on the shoulder of someone weaker than you or sadder or more frightened. The way you lean down to look them in the eye and say, “Come and play with me.” May you take that instinct forward into your future so that fewer people are lonely, more people feel included and the world is a kinder place—because of you.

We wish for a future where women continue to stand shoulder to shoulder and arm in arm in the face of what is unacceptable.

As your mothers, we will stand that way until our legs give out in advocacy of you, and in advocacy of all the things that will make your world better.

We wish all these things for you, but we also plan for you, work for you and fight for you. We promise you: we will not rest. Not until there is no longer a need for ‘NO MORE’, and ‘ME TOO’ and ‘WE WILL NOT BE QUIET.’

We will not rest until your power and your worth and your perfection are as clear to you as they are to us.

Because we are all the silence breakers now, and everything we do is for you, daughters.