"I'm a tomboy but that doesn't mean that I won't wear a beautiful dress with heels sometimes"

We live in a society that still expects things to be one way or another - black or white, up or down, girl or boy - and with these binaries come instructions of how to behave, speak, and even dress. But we're multifaceted people, so of course we're going to break the rules one way or another. 

I came across the #StemChallenge hashtag on Twitter and I was hooked from the first pictures. From what I gather, it's a hashtag where queer women slay in both ways, as 'tomboys' and 'femmes'. According to the Urban Dictionary, a stem lesbian is "a lesbian that usually dresses up as a guy but still has her feminine side". 

I'm not a queer woman, but this hashtag resonated with me in a big way. 

READ MORE: "I'm a tomboy and ditched my baggy sweaters and plain jeans for Instagram-inspired looks" 

Growing up as the only girl in a household that was 90 percent male, I grew into my style by copying my brothers, and so baggy sweaters and track pants quickly became my thing, much to the disappointment of a mother who wanted to see me in dresses more.

Eventually, I found that I liked and enjoyed to wear 'girly' things too, but I couldn't completely welcome this - I was made to believe that I had to be one way or another, and not both. 

I cringed at being dubbed a tomboy for fear of being ridiculed for not being lady-like; and I feared being dubbed 'girly' for the fact that I would have to perform according to that label. No one ever told me that I could be both; that I don't have to fit into just one mould in the way that I dress or carry myself. 

But alas! I have grown to appreciate what I'm like and how I express that through the way I dress, and this is why I love the truth that this hashtag echoes: our styles don't have to one thing, and often I can and do express myself in different ways, which are all true to who I am and choose to be. I can be a tomboy and still like pretty things. I can opt for sneakers and sweaters, and still enjoy wearing dresses when I feel like it. 

READ MORE: A woman wore men's cologne, deodorant and dressed in menswear fashion designs for a day - now she won't stop 

Sometimes I'll dress like someone's little brother, and sometimes I'll put on a good pair of heels and surprise everyone who didn't know I own a pair, and that's the beauty of being nonconforming. 

In my favourite sweater

In my favourite white dress

In the spirit of wearing whatever you like, however you want to, we asked a few women what item of clothing they like the most and this is what they told us:

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