Simone de Beauvoir: The Woman Who Taught Us to Be Free

Celebrating Women's History Month with a badass a day.

Simone de Beauvoir didn’t just write about freedom—she lived it. She was a philosopher, a novelist, a feminist icon, and a woman who refused to let society tell her how to think, love, or exist.

Born in Paris in 1908, Simone grew up in a bourgeois family that expected her to be a proper, obedient woman. Spoiler: she wasn’t. By the time she was a teenager, she’d already declared herself an atheist and decided she would dedicate her life to writing. She wasn’t interested in the narrow roles society had carved out for women. She wanted to think, to question, to live.

Simone’s most famous work, The Second Sex, is a cornerstone of feminist philosophy. In it, she famously wrote, “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” This wasn’t just a catchy line; it was a revolutionary idea. Simone argued that gender roles are constructed by society, not biology. Women aren’t inherently passive or emotional—they’re taught to be that way. And if they’re taught, they can unlearn.

But here’s the thing …