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Being asked what I’m studying in college and when I say “physics” getting that sort of distanced, surprised smile and often even a slightly sarcastic, “good-for-little-you” remark. As if I’m a naive little puppy without any clue what I’m doing. As if it’s not my nature to want to study physics. As if they’re encouraging me for “giving it a try” as it most certainly cannot be what a “little girl” like me is actually passionately interested in and especially can’t actually be that good at it. I get some of the highest grades in my classes. Being told I’m too pretty, too girly, too fashionable, too cute, too artsy to be a physics major. Being told that I’m selfish for not wanting to do a more applied or engineering direction in physics. Because as I woman I must always want to do something that immediately and directly “helps” people, rather than just be a scientist who discovers new things and new knowledge about the universe and reality. Because a woman could never enjoy or find meaning in work that didn’t focus directly on helping people in some immediate way. Being told that I only got my physics scholarships because I’m a woman. Being told that my fellowship at a national, fully-paid, highly-competitive summer research internship was given to me only because I am a woman and they need to “fill their quotas.” Because I couldn’t have possibly gotten it for my passion and my merit and my scholarship. My genuine passion and hard work and talent and top grades have nothing to do with their decision to offer me this position. My white male physics-major friend mentioning how it is hard to be a white male in physics because no one wants to accept white males into graduate programs because they all need to make sure they are diverse. Like it is his to begin with and women and minorities are stealing his God-given spot. A woman couldn’t possibly get accepted because she deserves it just as much or more as he does.