Elizabeth Olson
Bio
Writer and crafty person. Writes personal essays and op-eds on issues ranging from thrift stores and consumer culture to sustainable fashion to feminism and eating disorders. https://elizabethfolson.wixsite.com/portfolio
Stories (2/0)
The Cocoon
The most vivid memories I have from grade school all have two things in common: shame, and the desperate, seizing feeling of not belonging. At this point in my life, those memories are all stills. All of the characters’ voices are mine; faces are only a flash of color. But the accompanying emotions, and how I internalized them, have not left my side.
By Elizabeth Olson6 years ago in Psyche
Don’t Mistake My Confidence for Self-Absorption
Women suffer, silently. Before we’re even taught basic arithmetic, the idea that we need to count calories to maintain our worth as humans is wedged into our core beliefs. We’re taught to receive the world as passive observers, to keep our voices low and our bodies invisible. To be seen and not heard. Can you hear me now? We fold ourselves up like paper cranes in public. We shrink ourselves, we stunt our own growth in hopes that we’ll one day be as inconspicuous as a blade of grass. Light and ethereal, gentle as a plume of smoke from a candle. We’re barely there. A real woman is effortlessly beautiful and brilliant and kind, but don’t you dare talk about your successes you narcissistic bitch, didn’t anyone ever teach you to be humble?
By Elizabeth Olson7 years ago in Viva