I knew I was a feminist when I was 9 years old. One of my classmates — let’s call him John — smacked my butt on the playground.

Every other girl in my class took it as a compliment when John acknowledged their newfound junk in their trunk, but I knew better. Sexual harassment has never been a childish game in my mind, whether I was turning 9 or 19. I dragged my best friend Sachi with me for moral support across the playground to find the teacher on duty, and I told on John. I made a fuss about how I did not feel comfortable being touched like that, and it wasn’t consensual or warranted — mind you, my vocabulary may have been slightly altered at the time.

I was the first girl in my class to ever complain about John, and in the weeks to follow there were conferences with both of our parents, teachers and other faculty members. Most importantly, he never questioned my ability to stand my ground ever again.

Feminist awakenings can happen in a variety of ways: theory textbooks, magazine articles and classrooms, to name a few. The most common and outright way to spark enlightenment, however, is via personal experience. My fourth-grade incident with sexual harassment is only the beginning of a long list of feminist tendencies before I even knew the F-word existed.

These episodes of awareness are sometimes referred to as click moments — a memorable point in one’s life when one comes to terms with a particular belief. In May 2010, Seal Press is publishing an anthology comprised of these stories, titled ‘Click: Young Women on the Moment They Knew They Were Feminists.’ Noteworthy writers Courtney E. Martin and J. Courtney Sullivan co-edited the anthology together in celebration of feminism, youth and identity.

Politics, the media and popular culture are responsible for shaping the way our society runs, but we are individually accountable for the way we think. ‘Click’ informs readers that no one person or object can influence our uniqueness. It also addresses a younger audience under the 40-year-old mark and examines issues that caused these women to associate with feminism in the first place.

This book is important because it allows young women who have feminist tendencies to finally realize that they are, in fact, feminists. Younger generations of females are afraid to associate with feminism because of negative stigmas attached to the word. Do not fear any longer, fellow comrades — cool chicks like Shelby Knox, Winter Miller and Allisa Quart write about their own ‘click’ moments in Martin and Sullivan’s new anthology.

Click also provides a walk down memory lane for those who already associate with feminism and have simply forgotten their own personal reasons behind joining the movement.

I have come a long way from my first feminist awakening and my elementary school days of standing up for myself, and I’ve experienced many more feminist moments since my initial ‘click.’ The knowledge and opinions I currently hold all had to start somewhere, and I thank my lucky stars that Martin and Sullivan had the brilliance to compile and share similar moments with young women everywhere.

Krystie Yandoli is a sophomore women’s studies major. Her column appears weekly and she can be reached at klyandol@syr.edu. 

Published on April 7, 2010 at 12:00 pm