Dear Diary, Welcome to Being a Woman
This is a raw, powerful publication that documents the lived realities of women from age 8 to 25 through a series of fictionalised but deeply truthful diary entries.The design is simple and stripped back, so the words speak loudest. No distractions, just words. The A6 size makes it feel like a real diary, small, intimate, and personal. The colours shift from soft pink to deep red, girlhood to womanhood, innocence to anger, discomfort to power. It also plays on the gender stereotype that pink is for girls.
WRITTEN ON THE BOOK -
Dear Diary, Welcome to Being a Woman is a collection of raw, vulnerable diary entries following a girl from age 8 to 25, a journey through what it really means to grow up as a woman in a world that silences, shames, dismisses, and controls us. A journey through 25 years of unspoken rules.
Every entry in this book is drawn from truth, shaped by real experiences and real voices. It isn’t one woman’s story, it’s every woman’s story. Not every detail, not every chapter, but every woman will find something in these pages that feels painfully familiar. Some entries will make you angry. Some will make you cry. Some will educate you. All of them are true.
I wrote this book because I am tired and angry. Tired of the unspoken rules, the fear, the expectations, the silence. This is the reality of being a woman, raw, unfiltered, and true. These are the stories we’ve been forced to carry alone. But not anymore.
“Welcome to Being a Woman.” We’ve all heard it, when we’re harassed, dismissed, ignored, hurt. It’s the phrase they throw at us to explain the unfairness we’re meant to just accept. This book takes those moments and writes them down. This book is for women, who are tired, healing, scared, fighting, feeling alone. It’s for all of us.
And to the men reading this. Thank you. Keep reading. Keep listening. Let it make you uncomfortable. This isn’t an attack. It’s an invitation, to understand, to learn, to stand beside us. You have the power to do better. To be better. To raise better.
If you have a mother. A sister. A wife. A friend. And especially if you have daughters. Women you love who carry these fears, these stories, these scars, please listen. Believe us. Support us. Speak up for us when it matters most. Educate your male friends. Call them out. Stop the jokes, the comments, the silence. Because doing nothing makes you part of the problem. This isn’t just our burden. It never should have been.
And if you don’t agree. Feel attacked, feel it's unfair, or are offended by this.
Go write your own fucking book.
This is not fiction. This is reality. Welcome to being a Woman.
BY ABBY J HILTON