You know what they say about judging books.
Hi! I’m a senior in high school. I will be majoring in Neuroscience in the fall and I really want to take the pre-med courses along with it. I’m an outgoing and sometimes goofy girl. This random information is relevant because I haven’t told anyone that I want to be a doctor in fear that I will not be taken seriously. My high school GPA was a 4.1 and I’m even taking some classes at a nearby college to get ahead but people still do not believe me to be intelligent or a hard worker. What can I do?
I think I wanted to answer this question because a lot of women face these sorts of problems in medicine. I know for a fact that I’ve had to prove that I was smarter than other people in the room because people’s first opinions were that I couldn’t be as “smart as the boys” because I was “too pretty”. And I think you especially get brushed off as not serious as a woman if you’re fun loving.
This is an attitude it’s very likely you are going to run up against multiple times in your life. You can’t let it stop you!! I used to let comments like that bother me—now I just use them as fuel for the fire. People don’t get to define you—you do!
So maybe you have to work a little harder or know your stuff a little bit better than the other people in the room that are automatically taken seriously because of their gender or their personalities or the way they look.
I’ve also found that because of running up against this opinion I’ve become a little more forceful in how I present myself. It’s helped me be more willing to put forward my ideas and answer questions and jump on things I might have otherwise been hesitant to do. (But mabe I’m just one of those people that loves to prove you wrong.) I will say that I try to dress or act a little bit older when I’m in a professional setting so that people won’t just dismiss me for being young. I also often push a little bit harder and work a little bit harder than some of the other people around me because I feel like I have to disprove your first impression of me. I decided that having people occasionally decide I was “too-this” or “too-that” to be in medicine wasn’t going to stop me—it was just going to make me work harder.
So don’t be afraid to tell your friends and family about your aspirations. They should encourage you! And if they don’t–shut them down!! Tell them about your awesome GPA and how determined you are–then go prove them wrong. You’re smart and determined. You’re pretty incredible. And other people don’t get to take those things away from you by their opinions.
Best! :)
~Katharine (@ladykaymd)
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