Opinion: Dear young women, you have worth and no president can change that

Editor’s Note: We acknowledge that gender is a spectrum — not a binary. These letters are written to all kids. It is our addition to the post-election open letters written to future generations.

We lost a lot this election. And, we admit, you lost a lot this election. You don’t need to know exactly what Donald Trump has done or said, but you should know that our nation has chosen to elect a man who disrespects women to the highest office in the land.

We won’t sugar-coat it: This man has often not treated women as his equals, and that is deeply troubling for us. Women of all races and faiths deserve respect, and this next president has disrespected women publicly and often.

But — and this you must understand —you deserve more respect than many people in this country have right now for women and girls. Despite this, you are surrounded, from sunrise to sunset, by people who love you and see in you a president-in-training. And if you encounter someone who doesn’t see this potential in you because you’re a girl, know that they are wrong. This is true even when we haven’t had a president who looks like you.

Regardless of the attitudes of a president, a lot of adults are on your side, fighting to make sure that women are safe, loved and respected. You have a right to study, dance, speak and lead without any boys acting like your gender, your clothing or your body are theirs to judge.

These warriors are working so you can you can seize every opportunity by the time you have graduated and are working to make this world a little better.

We want the world to be less exhausting for you than it is for many women right now.

We know it hurts that you almost got to see a president who looks like you.

You’ve heard that you can do whatever the boys can do all your life; watching a woman, who seemed more qualified than a man who doesn’t respect women, lose the election likely stung. On Wednesday morning before school, when your parents told you over your eggs and bacon who the country chose to be president, I really hope that you didn’t have ghosts of doubt about that equality sneak into your mind for the first time.

You are in every way the equal of your male peers, and no one’s words — even a president’s — can ever change that.

All these grown ups fighting on your side will need a few things from you. We are going to need you to be as kind, as fierce, as brave, as accepting and as big-hearted as you possibly can.

If one of your classmates tries to intimidate or hurt someone who looks different from them, we need you to say something.

If a boy thinks it’s okay to talk about your body or thinks you are less than he is, we need you to stand up to him.

You also really, really do not have to say you’re sorry for expressing your thoughts clearly and with conviction. Please keep reading your history books, doing your math homework, working diligently and honestly in your debate classes and volunteering.

We are going to need even more little girls as fierce and as kind as you in these next few years.

After all, the future looks a whole lot like you.