“When I was little, the adult world constantly told me I was a good girl.” Her face twisted as if she had tasted something nasty. I didn’t quite understand what she meant. “‘Good girl,’ they said, patting me on the head. ‘Ulrika’s such a good girl.’ In the end I had no choice but to become that good girl everyone was expecting.” I had never thought about it like that before.
"Good girl praise" can turn into a styffling and compulsive disorder that paralyszes girls into constant people pleasing. Meaning that expectations are so high that performance becomes more important than anything else. You can burn out catastrophically mentally, without ever recognising that you have taken on to much. The road to recovery is very long and takes years.
