These Are The Rules That Bustle Rule Breakers' Attendees Are Ready To Break

It's time to celebrate breaking the rules. Bustle's Rule Breakers event, a celebration of female and non-binary people who smash societal rules, is well underway, packed with crowds of attendees roller-skating, paddle boating, and swaying to the performances of musical acts like Sofi Tukker and DJ Samantha Ronson.

It's often ingrained into our brains from childhood that we have to listen to the rules, whether in the classroom with teachers, at home with parents, or in the workplace with colleagues and bosses. And while many of those rules are important, it's also true that society also maintains its own subtle (or not so subtle) code of thought and behavior that we're expected to preserve and live by, one that doesn't always benefit us.

What better place than Bustle's inaugural Rule Breakers event to ask people the crucial question: What rule do they want to personally break at some point in their lifetime? The answers are as unique as the attendees. One guest, Melissa Carter, revealed, "A rule that I'm currently breaking is the idea in society that we have to be good girls and nice girls." Meanwhile, Katelyn Stone added, "I keep thinking about fashion and the rules around it. I already wear masculine clothes, but unisex isn't putting a women in an over-sized shirt or trousers. Unisex is men wearing dresses or skirts."

The answers offered up by attendees are surprising, inspiring, and absolute must-reads.

Melissa Carter:

"A rule that I'm currently breaking is the idea in society that we have to be good girls and nice girls. I'm choosing to start living life from a place of authentic kindness, rather than niceness. I feel like we can lead and affect change and have more meaning in our lives if people are authentically kind rather than just being nice."

Lexi Williams:

"I definitely don't want to take my husband's name when I get married."

Elizabeth And Katelyn Stone:

Elizabeth (left): "I want to raise children in a way so that they think about gender differently."

Katelyn (right): "I keep thinking about fashion and the rules around it. I already wear masculine clothes, but unisex isn't putting a women in an over-sized shirt or trousers. Unisex is men wearing dresses or skirts. For myself, I'd like to be more masculine gender appearing."

Hadassah Williams (left):

"I want to be able to provide influence for younger black women because I don't feel like it's as readily available as you'd think. Growing up in a household as a first generation American, my mom and dad are Caribbean, they didn’t know anything else other than what they had to do to survive. The voice that was provided onto me was survival and I'd like to provide a voice of strength and encouragement to younger black women and explain to them that they’re beautiful, amazing, and that their ideas are useful."

Jontil Hunt:

"I would like to break the rule and stigma that people only have to focus on one thing or one area in their career. All of my friends and everyone I know is multi-faceted, and especially in school and society, they teach you to only focus on one major or one aspect of creativity. But we're human beings, our minds are limitless, so I want to break that stigma that you’re not allowed to do every single thing you dream or have a passion for doing."

Desireé Cross:

"Just to have complete power over my life and not to let anyone dictate what I do or how I should do it."

From gender constructs to societal ideas of femininity, it turns out that some rules are in fact made to be broken.