Lizzy Caplan just dropped major truth in her essay on femininity

Praise be to Lizzy Caplan. The former Mean Girls star and current Masters of Sex leading lady is getting real about what it means to be a woman in today’s day and age. Going all the way back to her childhood, Caplan recounts how she grew up avoiding her femininity, and now as an adult, she’s here to embrace it. Oh, and she also wants the same rights, privileges, and wages as her male counterparts. Raise your hands up, because Caplan is in the house.

In a beautiful essay for Cosmopolitan‘s August issue, Caplan’s piece starts off explaining that growing up, she was a token tomboy. In her own words, she thought she was doing a better job being a boy, explaining that she was “less a little princess and more an awkward collection of elbows.” Caplan never wanted “[tear] through trunks of dress-up clothes or [attend] dance party sleepovers spent choreographing routines to New Kids on the Block.” Caplan wanted to win soccer games instead.

That’s a common feeling growing up. Not all little girls dream of being princesses, because some do have their sights set on sports trophies and bug collections. Best part, whether yesterday or today, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting that! And when Caplan’s body started changing, she really began to grow into her femininity, embracing every side of what it means to be a girl. Even though she no longer had the desire to roll around in the mud, she realized one thing: She didn’t necessarily feel the need to be a boy anymore, but she still wanted “all the same opportunities that are afforded to the boys.”

Let’s let Caplan take it from here:

That’s not even the mic drop moment. Caplan finishes off her essay with one incredibly powerful sentence: “I don’t want to be a boy, but I sure as hell want to be equal to them.”

Lizzy Caplan speaks the truth. Whether you’re growing up choreographing dances to NKOTB or 1D, all girls should have the opportunity to live in a world where things are equal. And, as you’ve probably heard, females are strong as hell, so it’s about time this equality started happening across the board.

You can check out Caplan’s whole essay over at Cosmopolitan, which easily just became one of our favorite essays ever. We always knew Janis Ian had it right all along.

(Image via Gary Sanchez Productions.)