Profile: “You're just a girl!”

Fitting in male-dominated jobs has been difficult for decades, and is still a challenge for many women. You have to prove yourself twice as hard. What’s it like for the girls who have a flair for male hobbies? Say, cars?

One 14-year-old girl at our school, currently an 8th grader, deals with comments simply for liking a “boy’s hobby.”

She has liked cars ever since she was 2 and got the inspiration from her father who is a mechanic.

“My father has always been a big inspiration to me and he has helped with many things, especially after moving from Romania to Germany, so I look up to him a lot”.

The 14-year-old finds it interesting how cars have lots of different functions, colours, how each type has its own flare, and how they all sound different.

On online forums there is a debate on which type of car brand is better? Is it the German brands or the Japanese brands?

“Most people think that Japanese brands are better, because of their production, but I personally find German brands better, because my favorite car is a BMW, and it's a German brand”.

This car superfan is very open about her hobbies to people and mainly  to her family.

“My family thinks that me liking cars was to be expected, because I don't think there's anyone in my family who is as crazy about cars as me!”

“Unfortunately, when talking about my hobbies to other people, mainly my male friends, and sometimes my female friends, I get a lot of weird looks or comments, this doesn't really bother me but it does make me a bit sad and just shows the stigma against women who follow men related hobbies”.

This is unfortunately what women have to hear or see on a daily basis for liking “men-related hobbies”.

The 14 year old girl has made it clear that no matter what happens as long as she has her family supporting her, especially her dad by her side then she doesn't care what other people think.