Welcome Ona, you have been alive for very few days, so few that we haven't even seen each other in person yet, but while you get to know your mother and your father and you all learn what each other is like, I felt like writing to you. You are a girl and you have had the immense fortune of ending up in an open, beautiful, and free family that will allow you to be the girl you want to be. Even so that at some point you might say that you are not sure if you are a girl, a boy, or whatever you feel like. Take advantage of the bonus because it is not always like this. You will see when you start to socialize that there are girls who are saddled with certain colors, certain decorations, certain things that it would not occur to anyone to saddle them with if they weren't a girl. You ask and do. Go for it. And as soon as you can, play whatever you feel like. Don't limit yourself to the typical game of pretending you have a hair salon, a school, a food stall, do it, if you want, but don't hold back, open your mind. Play at being the quantum physicist who finds the formula to shove Donald Trump into a black hole. Or at being the human resources director of a toy multinational who fires all the assholes. These are examples, but for real, don't hold back. I should tell you that the first extracurricular activity you should do is jujitsu, because, I won't lie to you, being a girl, being a woman, is a bit complicated when you go through the world, and self-defense would do you good. But I refuse for you to grow up out of fear. I want you to know that, in this sense, the problem will never be you. The problem will always be the aggressor's. I would advise you to sign up for the "feminist demonstrations" extracurricular, or "feminist organizations", "non-violent feminist guerrillas" or "how to be a feminist president in the 21st century"; it will be much more fun. But there is still time before you have to choose. Meanwhile, you can learn to vomit every time someone you don't know comes up to you and tells you that you are beautiful instead of telling you that you have an alert look or that you seem very clever or that you have very witty comebacks or what strength you have or what loud farts you make. Because Ona, all girls grow up hearing only that we are beautiful and pretty. This is the content of 95% of the praise we receive in childhood. And then, of course, we grow up thinking that this is what we are worth. And no, Ona, no. You are worth it no matter what your body is like, because Ona, you don't have a normative body or a non-normative body, you have the best body, the body that you care about. And when you start to talk, ask them to teach you to say: red flag, heteropatriarchy, emotional responsibility, gender pay gap your father, sorority, and words like that. I insist, you are very lucky, but you also have to know that we are a family that lives in Catalonia (Europe), we have light skin and we don't worry about money and we have access to things that many people don't have. And that it is not the same to be a girl like this, as it is to have darker skin, have less money, etc. Anyway, just so you note it down. I have only seen you for a second in a photo, but I have already realized: you have an alert look and you look like you are going to let out the loudest and most impressive farts in your town. Welcome, Ona, and long live your life and that of all girls!

Mònica Bernabé is one of the European journalists who best knows Afghanistan. She first went there in 2000, during the first Taliban regime, lived there between 2006 and 2014, and has returned on several occasions, the last one this August 2026, when it has been five years since the withdrawal of American troops. We speak with her about what she has seen, what they have told her, and how she has disguised herself to be able to narrate the reality of Taliban Afghanistan, a regime that does not want foreign journalists and makes it difficult to report on what is happening in the country.

Births in Catalonia rose slightly last year after 17 years of decline. In 2025, 28,019 boys and 26,230 girls were born, a total of 54,249 infants, representing an increase of 0.8% compared to 2024, according to provisional data released this morning by the Institute of Statistics of Catalonia, Idescat. This breaks a downward trend of almost two decades, although the increase is so slight that the crude birth rate remains at 6.7 births per 1,000 inhabitants, the same as in 2024.

If there's one girl's name that has consistently topped the popularity charts in recent years, it's Martina. The last time it reached the number one spot was in 2023, but between 2010 and 2016 it held the top position five times. In fact, the last decade saw a Martina boom: 7,585 girls were given that name, and although it's still popular, it has lost some ground between 2020 and 2023, with 1,663 girls bearing that name. It now occupies third place, behind Sofía and Julia.

We read in the ARA an article, quite surprising, by The Economist which is titled "Why are more and more families preferring girls over boys?" Gosh, you. And it explains cases of couples who cry when they're told it's "a boy" and that the networks are full of a pathology (it's not new, but it's been given a name) called "gender disappointment" and they show "the sadness of not having a little girl." I was going to say that we deserve extinction, but it's not necessary. We're close at hand.

When she was just eight years old, Lua began to complain that her breasts were hurting, and her mother, Marcela Sáenz, a nurse, noticed that she had already developed a breast bud—breast growth—which is generally the first sign of the onset of puberty in girls. "I saw that it wasn't normal, that it was too early, and we went to the Primary Care Center for an evaluation, and from there we were referred to the endocrinologist at San Juan de Dios Hospital," explains Lua's mother. There, they performed tests, including blood tests and a bone X-ray of her hand, to assess whether her growth was in line with her age. They also assessed her birth weight and development.

Elite athletes and mass sports, as well as the athletes who earn the most and have the greatest media coverage, have traditionally always been men. As this is a cause of a primarily cultural nature, perpetuated for a long time, it is necessary to empower girls and young women when it comes to starting and consolidating themselves in the sports they like. But how can this be done? Alejandra Domínguez, director of the Women's Sports Institute (WSI), suggests starting by "providing truthful information." And she maintains that "we tend to assume that the salary differences between male and female athletes are due to some type of discrimination, when what happens with sport, like with any business or industry, is also subject to the laws of the market and, therefore, to gain access we must submit to its rules." This does not mean, she clarifies immediately, "that nothing can be done to improve or that there is nothing to do." In fact, in his opinion, everything that falls outside the concept of the sports industry as a business should enjoy special protection. "We must ensure that access to sports becomes a reality for everyone," he stresses.

When she was little, Maria Recasens, now 26, had many hobbies: in addition to school, she participated in the Lego robotics league, went to the hideout, went climbing and really liked reading and painting. She wanted to be an astronaut then and that's why she got into astronomy until a physics book fell into her hands. She found it so interesting that she set her mind to studying something that would allow her to understand it. Years later she graduated in physics at the University of Barcelona, ​​​​she has completed an interuniversity master's degree in quantum science and technology and has started a doctorate at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO). This career and everything she remembers thinking about science when she was little is what she shares this Tuesday in a talk at the Menéndez Pelayo Institute in Barcelona, ​​​​in front of 1st year ESO students. For the first time she has joined the #científicas program, which for seven years has brought science and research to schoolchildren.