Reclaiming Girlhood: Celebrating Glamour, Fashion, and Modern Womanhood | Megan Keyser
How we love being women. Aside from the glaring burdens that come with womanhood, I genuinely love partaking in traditionally "girly" moments. I love grabbing a midday latte and wandering through local coffee shops, spending a slow weekend morning curating a space filled with flowers and art, or taking extra time on a full skincare and beauty routine. You learn to cherish the simple, tactile details of womanhood when broader cultural expectations constantly demand control over how you operate, present yourself, and build a career.
None of these activities are strictly girl-only, but society undeniably links certain habits with femininity. Wearing makeup, curating beautiful spaces, or watching GRWM videos while reflecting on your day all live in that space. At their best, these simple habits offer a moment of lighthearted fun, creative grounding, and connection.
A video clip I shared from the Victoria's Secret Fashions Show 2026 recently went viral across social media. It captured models lining the stage together, dancing, smiling, and celebrating in full glamour while crowds cheered and recorded the moment on their phones. Captions across the platform framed the clip as a prime example of pure, shared joy among women. While the footage was lighthearted, the commentary surrounding it quickly turned into an online discussion about modern femininity.
Where some observers viewed the moment through a cynical lens, I saw a lighthearted celebration of femininity, glamour, and shared excitement.
For decades, anything connected to traditional femininity was dismissed as inferior. High fashion, elaborate makeup routines, and curated aesthetics became synonymous with being vapid, mindless, or basic. As those stereotypes took root, women felt forced to prove they weren't like other girls. They distanced themselves from trends, pastel palettes, and beauty rituals just to prove they were serious, deep, and focused on things of actual substance. Women spent years apologizing for the simple things that brought them delight.
Reclaiming those moments is empowering.
As standard-bearer of American style and women's empowerment Diane von Furstenberg famously said:
"Femininity is a strength, and we must celebrate it rather than hide it."
Working in creative direction, brand strategy, and visual media gives me a deep appreciation for how design, beauty, and aesthetics impact human emotion. Visual storytelling carries immense power. When women come together to celebrate glamour, fashion, and self-expression, it taps into a shared energy that feels genuinely uplifting.
Aesthetics and beauty serve as forms of art, creativity, and personal expression that grant us permission to embrace joy on our own terms.
We don't need to over-intellectualize every piece of happiness we find. Enjoying a luxurious beauty product, loving a runway spectacle, or indulging in a morning ritual doesn't lessen our intellect, our ambition, or our professional impact.
I'm a firm advocate for fully relishing in personal joy. We can be strategic, driven, and deeply serious about our work while simultaneously loving the sparkle, the glamour, and the fun of being a woman.
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