Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: ‘Forget about being ‘Likable’, that’s bullsh!t’

Popular Nigerian author and feminist, Chimamanda Adichie in a recent speech she delivered at the 2015 Girls Write Now awards ceremony spoke on how girls should stop pursuing likability and learn to be themselves.

Here’s what she said below;
I think that what our society teaches young girls, and I think it’s also something that’s quite difficult for even older women and self-professed feminists to shrug off, is that idea that likability is an essential part of you, of the space you occupy in the world, that you’re supposed to twist yourself into shapes to make yourself likable, that you’re supposed to hold back sometimes, pull back, don’t quite say, don’t be too pushy, because you have to be likable.

 
And I say that’s bullsh!t. So what I want to say to young girls is forget about likability. If you start thinking about being likable you are not going to tell your story honestly, because you are going to be so concerned with not offending, and that’s going to ruin your story.