As a 13-year-old girl, my parents and pretty much my whole family tree—like my aunts and uncles—are so ridiculously sexist, like they still think we’re living back in Asia. In my house, ever since I was 8, I’ve been stuck doing all the housework.
To this day, I’m still doing it, while my 17-year-old brother does nothing. My mum doesn’t even ask him anymore—he just sits around playing games all day. I once made a chore list with all three of our names on it, but guess who actually kept up with it? Only me.
And these aren’t even “normal” chores like a bit of vacuuming or doing the dishes after one meal. No—I vacuum every single room with this tiny hand cleaner where I have to crouch the whole time. I clean the table, the dinner cloth that everyone makes messy, put all the food and dishes away, and wash dishes three times a day. When we have gatherings, it’s worse—because I hear the boys upstairs laughing and playing games while I’m breaking my back cleaning up.
When I ask my mum why I can’t play, she literally says, “Are you a boy? You’re a girl, so why should you play games?” And when I ask why my brother doesn’t do dishes, she screams at me: “Don’t question me again. Stop comparing yourself to your brother. He’s a boy, you’re a girl. Final.”
It doesn’t help that my brother is strong from going to the gym, so my mum treats him like a king, and he treats me like trash. I get at least one bruise a day from him even though he’s five years older than me. I love gaming and parkour, but when I touch a controller, I get shouted at and sometimes thrown around. Meanwhile, my brother has had two phones already, a £1000 gaming laptop, and I’m not even allowed to be in the same room with it.
I’m a footballer, I love being active, but at home I’m treated like I should just be a “good little female servant.” I’m not even allowed to choose my own clothes. I have to wear long dresses that drag to my feet. I begged my mum for a knee-length school skirt, and I’ve been wearing the same one for two years. I even wear trousers underneath, not tights, but when I said I wanted a new one, my brother instantly said: “Where’s your modesty? You’re a girl.”
I just want to wear shorts one day without it being a whole crime. I don’t even have a phone or any device of my own—I’m writing this on my sister’s laptop. I’m not even allowed to watch TV. When I play COD, Roblox Rivals, or Dead by Daylight, I have to do it in secret, hiding somewhere so nobody catches me. If they see me, I get shouted at and told gaming is only for boys. Maybe the only game they’d let me play is Cooking Simulator — but truth is, they don’t let me play anything at all.
I was forced to join an all girls secondary school and ive hated every day of it, its an outstanding rated school the education is hard and draining. But my brother oh low and behold get to go to the school he chooses and of course a mixed school that has real facilities that can be used but obviously in my school theres not much sports or games just education learning and learning. when I questioned my parents my dad outright ignored me like he usually does and my mum said Its just closer that's why, so why the heck DID THEY PUT ME IN A SCHOOL 5 MILES AWAY when the school my brother went to is literally a 2 MIN WALK. Then I asked them why put me in a all girls school and him in a mixed school istg my mum said because theres no boys school around when theres I GENUINLY SWEAR TO GOD THERE A BOYS SCHOOL 3 MINUITS BY BUS FROM MY HOUSE but then obviously after that she slapped me and got angry for questioning her authority and trying to compare boys and girls. Right now I'm crying tears of frustration at this because my boy cousin also goes to a mixed schools whilst my female cousin has to go to a girls school 10 minuets away by bus. May god help me before I do smth. I have to supress tears of frustration.
My brother isn’t providing financially, isn’t helping out—he’s just a waste of space. And when I say I want to leave at 18, my family shuts me down: “You’re Asian, you’re a girl, you can’t leave.” And it’s not just my mum—it’s my aunty, and even my own older sister, who back up this sexist mindset and try to repress me.
Listen, I’m not some feminist—I just want to be treated equally. Because of my family’s sexist mindset, I feel like the weirdo at school. My whole life is controlled—what I eat, what I wear, what I do. I’ve started to resent boys because of how free they get to live while I’m treated like a prisoner. And it’s not even about money problem—it’s about discrimination.
Because of my family’s sexist ideology I’ve grown to despise boys for their freedom to do anything they want, and I hate when they complain about the littlest things like their PS5 getting taken away or their phone. Be for real—you even have a phone or PS5. It’s also not a money problem, just discrimination

Every time they’re laughing upstairs in their own room, just leaving their plate on the sink for their YOUNGER cousin to wash and put away, I loathe them even more. But I know not everyone is like that, because there are some rare nice boys who help out around the house and wash and clean and even cook...
All I’ve ever wanted is to know what it feels like not to be shouted at, cursed at, or nagged every two seconds. To just live like a normal teenager, not as my parents’ unpaid servant. Things are getting worse at home, in ways I can’t even write about here. But even if nobody cares, it feels good to finally say it out loud. I'm going to literally do something.
And just to be clear: this is the UK. Not Asia.