I have been villainized because of my identity - I've received nasty blog comments and emails just based on my willingness to identify with feminism by people who clearly don't understand what I value and why I identify as a feminist. Ultimately, I'm less concerned with whether or not people identify as feminist and am more concerned with whether or not people understand what feminism is. If they don't want to identify as a feminist that's fine. I respect people's decision to identify any way they want and expect that same respect in return, although I don't always get it.

I actually felt like college was a much better and more comfortable environment for me than high school was. I think that can largely be attributed to the fact that I go to Barnard, which is a women's college that promotes women's leadership, a strong community and independence which are all things I obviously value. Before I got to school I think I expected most women there to identify as feminist, which I found wasn't necessarily the case, but I loved that I was able to have really intelligent and stimulating conversations with women about feminism no matter how they identified.

When I grew up, feminism wasn’t something that was really talked about. There’s a really negative stereotype about feminism in the media. That really plays badly for young women understanding the movement. Maybe people don’t want to identify themselves as feminists because of the label. But people need to understand what feminism means and educate themselves before they reject it.

The idea of equality is still how I define feminism. I think it's a broad definition that encompasses the variety of experiences women and men have with the word and the movement.

I think one of the primary reasons young women don't identify as feminist is because they don't know any feminists and/or don't really have an accurate or comprehensive understanding of what it is - by proudly identifying as a feminist.

I think magazines like Glamour have the ability to have a great impact. Glamour has the ability to expose them to things like feminism that they may not be well acquainted with. In fact, Glamour has done that in the past - when I was in eighth grade I read an article in Glamour magazine about female feticide and infanticide that actually sparked my entire interest in feminism. I hate it when some feminists say we should get rid of beauty and fashion magazines - I think there's room in feminism for fashion, for fun, for talking about sex and friendships and relationships, etc.

I believe I was raised with feminist values, but I don't think I ever heard my Mom call herself a feminist. Before I identified as a feminist myself, I thought of feminism as more of a historical term describing the women's movement in the '70s but didn't know much about what they had done and didn't think it applied to my life at all.