By Charlotte Cluff
To reiterate what Annika Shankar (Current SRC/Communications Captain) said in her speech during Wednesday’s assembly, “Supergirl week is a lot more than just wearing a pink ribbon in your hair and dancing on the oval”. As we reflect on this week, a celebration of our power as female students within our school, and as female citizens in the wider national and global community, it is so important to realize that every activity we have partaken in has boosted our collective sense of felicity, but ALSO has played an important role in provoking our thoughts about what it truly means to be a ‘Supergirl’.
Supergirl week was initiated at Loreto Normanhurst by Shivani Reddy (SRC/Communications Captain) in 2016, the year we started in year 7. As junior students, our naivety likely prevented us from seeing the true vision behind Shivani’s development of the program, however each year since that, it’s meaning has increased significantly. To me, Supergirl week has multiple different facets of meaning, because it is different for each individual. Being a Supergirl is about finding your inner voice, but most importantly, it is about finding the confidence to use that voice, in whichever form that may take.
Being a Supergirl does not have to be getting up in front of an entire crowd and speaking your mind: but it can be if that’s what empowers you to express yourself. It doesn’t have to mean constantly attending to the needs of others, it could be simple acts of kindness that truly makes a difference.
Further to this, being a true Supergirl is about empathy. It’s about empathising with girls around us, in order to support each other in our everyday lives, but it is more than that. In this frame of mind this week, it is so vitally important to think about those girls and women in the world who are so much less fortunate than we are. They struggle to be Supergirl’s and express their inner voice because they aren’t even provided with the basic education and necessities that they need to do so. When we foster this empathy and recognise our own immense gratitude for the situation that we are in, it is then that we feel empowered to speak out for those who cannot do so themselves, and this is what truly defines a Supergirl.
This week we have heard empowering stories of women within our Loreto community and participated in activities that brought us all together as a collective. We have witnessed a student-teacher soccer match, heard inspirational speeches during assembly and viewed incredibly powerful performances. But as you reflect on this week, whether you are in junior school or are a year 12 student, make sure you remember the meaning of this celebration, and through this felicity, take the opportunity to be grateful for the opportunity we have to find and express that inner voice which many women in our world do not have. Use this to speak up for yourself, and what you believe in and also for others who don’t have this same opportunity, in whatever form may be suitable to you.
As you look at that pink ribbon you have so proudly worn in your hair this week, think not just about how it looks, but what it symbolises. And when you take it out, don’t leave behind the thoughts that have been provoked within you this week, as it takes long term commitment to express these ideas in order to truly be a Supergirl.