The Wheel of Womanhood

Knives (K.K.) Kolenda

11th Grade

Angelo Rodriguez High School

Solano County

“This poem shares my experience of the trauma of growing up as a woman – being treated as less than, and knowing your rights wouldn’t be as compromised if you were born male. I wrote about the lack of justice that people born female face when entering the world and how the trauma and fear is passed on for generations. As someone who is gender nonconforming, I have always felt like the world has (and always will) treat me with less respect because of the body I was born in.”