I turned 18 not long ago. Dating is not a big priority in my life, it never really has been. However, I'm now starting to feel as if I probably will end up with somebody, though likely not until my late 20s or early 30s, maybe even later.

This might seem a bit nonsensical, but since turning 18 (probably because I'm now a legal adult) I've been feeling a bit shit about how women get treated over aging. I know that age actually doesn't hold a woman back romantically, and most women seem to age better than most men anyway. But because of shitty patriarchal propaganda, women are made to feel insecure about our age all the damn time, as if youth is all that matters for us. I know the argument is that fertility decreases, but it does for men too, and I don't want children anyway. I feel nervous about facing discrimination and being dismissed when compared to a man of the same age when I grow up, and I don't want it to knock my confidence. Do you ladies have any advice for feeling this way?