We were swimming in the hotel pool when she asked me, “How old are you?”

She must have been between 7 and 9 years old.

I let her know that I am 40.

As soon as my reply left my mouth, the mother of this little girl who asked my age said she always tells her children she is 29.

RELATED: 6 Reasons Why I Refuse To Lie About My Age

We were two women who approached sharing our ages differently.

We were both the result of being young girls who grew up in a society that taught us a woman’s age is something to lie about when she gets older.

She took what we were conditioned to do and performed appropriately; I took what we were conditioned to do and stopped the cycle.

I will not lie about my age to my child or anyone else.

I will tell the truth.

When we tell the truth about our age to children we teach them it is okay to be the age we are.

RELATED: I Want a Body That Tells the Truth

I also choose to tell the truth to my son about my weight. This was another thing I was taught to lie about—always say you weigh less than you do.

I stopped doing this as well, to my son and on my driver’s license.

I now tell the truth about my age and my weight.

I am 40 years old and I weigh 150 pounds.

As grown women, we no longer have to carry the burden of having to be a certain way or look a certain way, we can be free of this if we choose to tell the truth and not hide who we are.

As women, we get to let our worth be more than our age and weight because we are so much more than this and we all know it—so we get to live it too.