reasons you tend to stay away from calling yourself an L word:

you grew up thinking it meant you weren’t allowed to wear dresses or feel pretty.
you’ve always resented plaid shirts.

you thought it was exhausting when you were the leader of the alphabet pack.
as they say, first is the worst.

you felt shameful after watching the first few seasons of friends¹ on television.
the only thing more comical than a [redacted] is one that fits the stereotypes.

you never liked being praised for not getting distracted by shoulders in school.
please don’t use our mere existence to fight² misogynistic dress codes.

you know that no straight woman would ever say they’d go queer for another woman.
they would only go [redacted] for them.

you refuse to let it serve as the overarching categorization of your relationship.
your girlfriend is still bisexual.

you type it into youtube and are met with a plethora of pornography.
results for gays³ are all pg-13 at most.

you see a news article about dairy queen refusing to write it on a cake.
an act as nutty as a fruitcake⁴ and ironically, for many women, the icing on it too.

you are forever friends with prohibited and restricted content messages.
creators demonetized⁵ left and right.

reasons you should ignore the aforementioned and unapologetically call yourself a Lesbian:

you don’t like the thought of young girls growing up with your past mindset.
they deserve to feel like more than mannequins on display.

you realize that orange, white, and pink together remind you of the prettiest of sunsets.
they always were your favorite colors.

¹deleted episode: “the one where friends kept you from coming out”
²we now have yet another battle to fight
³and for queers and gay women and queer women and sapphic
⁴minus the fruitiness, of course
⁵apparently, demon is right

*