So I’ve seen a lot about International Women’s Day (because that’s what today is), coupled with a lot recently about women bringing each other down – or rather things on social media trying to convince women not to bring each other down.

I think it’s symptomatic of the world we now live in that it is so easily done. Thoughts which used to just be thoughts end up on twitter, or tiktok (whatever that is) or one of the three million other platforms we have at our disposal, and they get a positive response, and suddenly more and more of those thoughts trickle out of your head and onto the internet. It’s actually pretty awful.

I do it. I think a lot of people do. I am currently watching ‘Love is Blind’ on Netflix (truly one of the most ridiculous programmes ever created, just by EXPENSE alone) and I keep finding myself having views on the women on the show. And the guys too, but I do find myself being more critical of the women. Maybe I think I’d be “better” or at the very least “different”? I don’t really know, but it’s there.

Hopefully less frequently, I do it to people in my life as well. And if I’m totally honest with myself, I do criticise the women in my life more than the men. I don’t know why, I’m not suggesting that the men I know make less mistakes, but I am definitely more critical of the women in my life than I’d like to be, and than I probably should be.

So this International Women’s Day, I’m making a commitment to myself, to just be a bit nicer to the women around me. It’s not always easy being a girl – just read anything about the feminist journey, which is very much not over – but being challenged and having barriers put up by other women doesn’t help. I’m going to try not to be that person any more, if I can help it.