200 Quotes for Teenage Girls to Inspire Confidence

Whether you need a caption, a journal prompt, or something steady to read on a hard morning, you will find it below. Browse the collection by theme, and do not miss our Editor’s Picks for the very best of these quotes for teenage girls. If you are curious how girlhood has been understood across cultures and history, Wikipedia’s overview of girls is worth a look.

Pick the line that sounds like you right now. Save it, send it to a friend, or write it somewhere you will see it tomorrow morning.

Quotes for Teenage Girls on Confidence

Confidence is not loud. It is the quiet decision to trust yourself before anyone else does. These quotes for teenage girls on confidence come from athletes, artists, and leaders who learned to bet on themselves first.

1. “Don’t let anyone speak for you, and don’t rely on others to fight for you.” — Michelle Obama
2. “Normal is not something to aspire to, it’s something to get away from.” — Jodie Foster
3. “Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got.” — Janis Joplin
4. “I don’t care what you think about me. I don’t think about you at all.” — Coco Chanel
5. “Hard days are the best because that’s when champions are made.” — Gabby Douglas
6. “Don’t be afraid to speak up for yourself. Keep fighting for your dreams.” — Gabby Douglas
7. “What is fundamentally beautiful is compassion.” — Lupita Nyong’o
8. “I don’t think that loving yourself is a choice. I think that it’s a decision that has to be made for survival.” — Lizzo
9. “I’m not here to be perfect. I’m here to be real.” — Pink
10. “There is not one big cosmic meaning for all; there is only the meaning we each give to our life.” — Anaïs Nin
11. “Keep your eyes on the finish line and not on the turmoil around you.” — Rihanna
12. “I’m intimidated by the fear of being average.” — Taylor Swift
13. “Overpower. Overtake. Overcome.” — Serena Williams
14. “Take your victories, whatever they may be, cherish them, use them, but don’t settle for them.” — Mia Hamm
15. “I think it’s important for girls to be confident.” — Alex Morgan
16. “The only one who can tell you ‘you can’t win’ is you and you don’t have to listen.” — Shawn Johnson
17. “Stay strong. Stand up. Have a voice.” — Shawn Johnson
18. “You have to remember that the hard days are what make you stronger.” — Aly Raisman
19. “I try to make the good days great and take something positive from the days I’m not feeling good.” — Katie Ledecky
20. “Be happy with being you. Love your flaws. Own your quirks.” — Ariana Grande

Quotes on Self-Worth and Loving Yourself

You do not need permission to take up space. These lines on self-worth are reminders that you are enough exactly as you are. No fixing, shrinking, or apologizing required.

1. “Only do what your heart tells you.” — Princess Diana
2. “Be yourself. The world worships the original.” — Attributed to Ingrid Bergman
3. “How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!” — Maya Angelou
4. “Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it.” — Maya Angelou
5. “Do not ever let anyone make you feel like you don’t matter, or like you don’t have a place in our American story—because you do.” — Michelle Obama
6. “I decided, very early on, just to accept life unconditionally.” — Audrey Hepburn
7. “No one is you and that is your power.” — Unknown
8. “Shame is the lie someone told you about yourself.” — Anaïs Nin
9. “The honorary duty of a human being is to love.” — Maya Angelou
10. “I’ve learned that making a ‘living’ is not the same thing as making a ‘life.’” — Maya Angelou
11. “I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.” — Maya Angelou
12. “I felt like it was time to set up my future, so I set a goal. My goal was independence.” — Beyoncé
13. “I always believed that when you follow your heart or your gut, when you really follow the things that feel great to you, you can never lose.” — Rihanna
14. “I like being a woman, even in a man’s world.” — Whitney Houston
15. “Being a singer is a natural gift. It means I’m using to the highest degree possible the gift that God gave me to use.” — Aretha Franklin
16. “Sometimes you’ve got to let everything go—purge yourself.” — Tina Turner
17. “My legacy is that I stayed on course… from the beginning to the end, because I believed in something inside of me.” — Tina Turner
18. “Mom, I am a rich man.” — Cher
19. “A lot of people are afraid to say what they want. That’s why they don’t get what they want.” — Madonna
20. “I see my body as an instrument, rather than an ornament.” — Alanis Morissette

Quotes on Dreams and Ambition

Big dreams need fuel. These quotes on ambition and dreams come from scientists, athletes, and storytellers who started exactly where you are now, with an idea and the nerve to chase it.

1. “You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the waterslide, overthinking it. You have to go down the chute.” — Tina Fey
2. “I think the girl who is able to earn her own living and pay her own way should be as happy as anybody on earth.” — Susan B. Anthony
3. “The best color in the whole world is the one that looks good on you.” — Coco Chanel
4. “A woman can be over dressed but never over elegant.” — Coco Chanel
5. “The best way to make dreams come true is to wake up.” — Attributed to Mae Jemison
6. “Everything’s a game, Avery Grambs. The only thing we get to decide in this life is if we play to win.” — Jennifer Lynn Barnes
7. “If I go there’s just no telling how far I’ll go.” — Moana
8. “Science is fun. Science is curiosity.” — Sally Ride
9. “The most important thing I’ve accomplished, other than building the compiler, is training young people.” — Grace Hopper
10. “Above all, don’t fear difficult moments. The best comes from them.” — Rita Levi-Montalcini
11. “To the stars who listen—and the dreams that are answered.” — Sarah J. Maas
12. “You do not yield.” — Sarah J. Maas
13. “I was not a pet, not a doll, not an animal. I was a survivor, and I was strong.” — Sarah J. Maas
14. “To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone, and a funny bone.” — Reba McEntire
15. “What a man’s mind can create, man’s character should control.” — Thomas Edison
16. “Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have.” — Thomas Edison
17. “Discontent is the first necessity of progress.” — Thomas Edison
18. “Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.” — Thomas Edison
19. “Great ideas originate in the muscles.” — Thomas Edison
20. “There are two kinds of stones, as everyone knows, one of which rolls.” — Amelia Earhart

Quotes on Courage and Being Brave

Being brave rarely feels brave in the moment. It feels shaky and uncertain — and you do it anyway. These quotes on courage are for the days you need to borrow someone else’s backbone.

1. “Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought.” — Octavia Butler
2. “I don’t want to be remembered as the girl who was shot. I want to be remembered as the girl who stood up.” — Malala Yousafzai
3. “We were scared, but our fear was not as strong as our courage.” — Malala Yousafzai
4. “No one is too small to make a difference.” — Greta Thunberg
5. “I want you to act as if your house is on fire. Because it is.” — Greta Thunberg
6. “We can’t save the world by playing by the rules.” — Greta Thunberg
7. “I have learned you are never too small to make a difference.” — Greta Thunberg
8. “We lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands before us.” — Amanda Gorman
9. “What’s the point of having a voice if you’re gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn’t be?” — Angie Thomas
10. “Brave doesn’t mean you’re not scared, Starr. It means you go on even though you’re scared.” — Angie Thomas
11. “Here’s some advice. Stay alive.” — Suzanne Collins
12. “Becoming fearless isn’t the point. That’s impossible. It’s learning how to control your fear.” — Veronica Roth
13. “You can’t run away from who you are, but what you can do is run toward who you want to be.” — Jason Reynolds
14. “You can’t change how other people think and act, but you’re in full control of you.” — Nic Stone
15. “If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse.” — Holly Black
16. “The problem with wanting is that it makes us weak.” — Leigh Bardugo
17. “When people say impossible, they usually mean improbable.” — Leigh Bardugo
18. “I’d rather die on an adventure than live standing still.” — V.E. Schwab
19. “Plenty of humans were monstrous, and plenty of monsters knew how to play at being human.” — V.E. Schwab
20. “To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears.” — Octavia Butler

Quotes on Friendship and Love

The right friends make everything easier — the bad days shorter and the good days longer. These quotes on friendship and love celebrate the people who feel like home.

1. “A friend loveth at all times.” — Proverbs 17:17
2. “A sweet friendship refreshes the soul.” — Proverbs 27:9
3. “So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I’m still trying to figure out how that could be.” — Stephen Chbosky
4. “Things change. And friends leave. Life doesn’t stop for anybody.” — Stephen Chbosky
5. “Holding Eleanor’s hand was like holding a butterfly.” — Rainbow Rowell
6. “Stories are light.” — Kate DiCamillo
7. “If you have no intention of loving or being loved, then the whole journey is pointless.” — Kate DiCamillo
8. “Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked two moons in his moccasins.” — Sharon Creech
9. “For the two of us, home isn’t a place. It is a person.” — Stephanie Perkins
10. “Is it possible for home to be a person and not a place?” — Stephanie Perkins
11. “The more you know who you are, and what you want, the less you let things upset you.” — Stephanie Perkins
12. “Don’t think or judge, just listen.” — Sarah Dessen
13. “There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment.” — Sarah Dessen
14. “You are all the colors in one, at full brightness.” — Jennifer Niven
15. “The thing I realize is that it’s not what you take, it’s what you leave.” — Jennifer Niven
16. “All humans make mistakes. What determines a person’s character aren’t the mistakes we make.” — Colleen Hoover
17. “Sometimes in life, we need a few bad days in order to keep the good ones in perspective.” — Colleen Hoover
18. “It is strange how we hold on to the pieces of the past while we wait for our futures.” — Ally Condie
19. “Once you want something, everything changes.” — Ally Condie
20. “A dragon without its rider is a tragedy. A rider without their dragon is dead.” — Rebecca Yarros

Quotes on Kindness and Character

Kindness is a strength, not a softness. These quotes on kindness and character are about the person you are becoming, and the mark you leave on everyone you meet.

1. “I don’t want the fear of failure to stop me from doing what I really care about.” — Emma Watson
2. “Don’t follow the path. Go where there is no path and begin the trail.” — Ruby Bridges
3. “Each and every one of us is born with a clean heart.” — Ruby Bridges
4. “Anywhere I see suffering, that is where I want to be, doing what I can.” — Princess Diana
5. “Nothing is more important than empathy for another human being’s suffering.” — Audrey Hepburn
6. “The world is full of kind people. If you can’t find one, be one.” — Unknown
7. “When you look for the bad in mankind expecting to find it, you surely will.” — Eleanor H. Porter
8. “Fairness does not mean everyone gets the same. Fairness means everyone gets what they need.” — Rick Riordan
9. “Life doesn’t have to be so planned. Just roll with it and let it happen.” — Jenny Han
10. “The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it.” — Lois Lowry
11. “Kindness eases change.” — Octavia Butler
12. “Yesterday is but today’s memory, tomorrow is today’s dream.” — Khalil Gibran
13. “Waking up this morning, I smile.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
14. “A person is a person because he recognizes others as persons.” — Desmond Tutu
15. “Exclusion is never the way forward on our shared paths to freedom and justice.” — Desmond Tutu
16. “I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master.” — Desmond Tutu
17. “Struggle is a never ending process.” — Coretta Scott King
18. “The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.” — William Shakespeare
19. “Things done well and with a care, exempt themselves from fear.” — William Shakespeare
20. “Beware of entrance to a quarrel.” — William Shakespeare

Quotes on Learning and Growing

School is about more than grades. It is where you learn how you think, what you love, and who you want to be. These quotes on learning are for students, readers, and the endlessly curious.

1. “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.” — Albert Einstein
2. “I go to seek a Great Perhaps.” — John Green
3. “I know now that most people are so closely concerned with themselves that they are not aware of their own individuality.” — Georgia O’Keeffe
4. “The finest language is mostly made up of simple unimposing words.” — George Eliot
5. “Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure.” — George Eliot
6. “Will not a tiny speck very close to our vision blot out the glory of the world?” — George Eliot
7. “Find ecstasy in life.” — Emily Dickinson
8. “Art hurts. Art urges voyages.” — Gwendolyn Brooks
9. “Live not for battles won. Live not for the-end-of-the-song. Live in the along.” — Gwendolyn Brooks
10. “You might as well answer the door, my child, the truth is furiously knocking.” — Lucille Clifton
11. “If you don’t understand yourself you don’t understand anybody else.” — Nikki Giovanni
12. “There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” — Audre Lorde
13. “Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving.” — bell hooks
14. “Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to ‘jump at de sun.’” — Zora Neale Hurston
15. “People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.” — Harper Lee
16. “Things are never as bad as they seem.” — Harper Lee
17. “We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly.” — Margaret Atwood
18. “Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.” — Margaret Atwood
19. “We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change.” — Ursula K. Le Guin
20. “Men do change, and change comes like a little wind that ruffles the curtains at dawn.” — John Steinbeck

Quotes on Being Yourself

Fitting in is overrated. The most interesting people are the ones who stopped performing and started being themselves. These quotes are permission slips to do the same.

1. “Imitation is suicide.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. “Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness.” — Allen Ginsberg
3. “It isn’t where you came from; it’s where you’re going that counts.” — Ella Fitzgerald
4. “If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside.” — Frances Hodgson Burnett
5. “Everything’s a story—You are a story—I am a story.” — Frances Hodgson Burnett
6. “You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it.” — Yann Martel
7. “I suppose in the end, the whole of life becomes an act of letting go, but what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye.” — Yann Martel
8. “I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.” — Markus Zusak
9. “Even death has a heart.” — Markus Zusak
10. “So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane.” — John Green
11. “What a treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a person.” — John Green
12. “After all, what’s a life, anyway? We’re born, we live a little while, we die.” — E.B. White
13. “Face your life, its pain, its pleasure, leave no path untaken.” — Neil Gaiman
14. “To really be a nerd, she’d decided, you had to prefer fictional worlds to the real one.” — Rainbow Rowell
15. “I’ve always done whatever I want and always been exactly who I am.” — Billie Eilish
16. “My life was narrated for me by others.” — Tara Westover
17. “The problem with my life was that it was someone else’s idea.” — Benjamin Alire Sáenz
18. “I was amazed that what I needed to survive could be carried on my back.” — Cheryl Strayed
19. “The universe, I’d learned, was never, ever kidding.” — Cheryl Strayed
20. “To be careful with people and with words was a rare and beautiful thing.” — Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Short Quotes for Teenage Girls

Sometimes a few words are enough. These short quotes for teenage girls work as captions, lock-screen reminders, or notes to a friend who needs one today.

1. “She is clothed in strength and dignity.” — Proverbs 31:25
2. “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting.” — Proverbs 31:30
3. “Sometimes you do things for the right reasons and sometimes for the wrong ones and sometimes it’s impossible to tell the difference.” — Nicola Yoon
4. “I bet you could sometimes find all the mysteries of the universe in someone’s hand.” — Benjamin Alire Sáenz
5. “Words were different when they lived inside of you.” — Benjamin Alire Sáenz
6. “The sky is everywhere, it begins at your feet.” — Jandy Nelson
7. “Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices make you.” — Gayle Forman
8. “So many things become beautiful when you really look.” — Lauren Oliver
9. “Literature is my Utopia.” — Helen Keller
10. “Love, it never dies. It never goes away, it never fades, so long as you hang on to it.” — Gayle Forman
11. “Waste is worse than loss.” — Thomas Edison
12. “I nearly always write just as I nearly always breathe.” — John Steinbeck
13. “A book is like a man—clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly.” — John Steinbeck
14. “Optimism is a happiness magnet.” — Mary Lou Retton
15. “The idea of brotherhood redawns upon the world with a broader significance than the narrow association of members in a sect or creed.” — Helen Keller
16. “The essential elements of giving are power and love—activity and affection—and the consciousness of the race testifies that in the high and appropriate exercise of these is a blessedness greater than any other.” — Helen Keller
17. “I have often been asked, ‘Do not people bore you?’ I do not understand quite what that means.” — Helen Keller
18. “Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts… perhaps the fear of a loss of power.” — John Steinbeck
19. “No one wants advice—only corroboration.” — John Steinbeck
20. “Writers are a little below clowns and a little above trained seals.” — John Steinbeck

Quotes for Tough Days

Bad days do not last, but they feel endless while you are in one. These quotes for tough days are small lights. Hold onto whichever one you need today.

1. “Fear is only your enemy if you allow it to be.” — Sabaa Tahir
2. “There are two kinds of guilt: the kind that drowns you until you’re useless, and the kind that fires your soul to purpose.” — Sabaa Tahir
3. “Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous.” — Marie Rutkoski
4. “I don’t want to be a passenger in my own life.” — Beth Revis
5. “True happiness… is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.” — Helen Keller
6. “It is for us to pray not for tasks equal to our powers, but for powers equal to our tasks, to go forward with a great desire forever beating at the door of our hearts as we travel toward our distant goal.” — Helen Keller
7. “The chief handicap of the blind is not blindness, but the attitude of seeing people towards them.” — Helen Keller
8. “It gives me a deep comforting sense that things seen are temporal and things unseen are eternal.” — Helen Keller
9. “I believe that God is in me as the sun is in the colour and fragrance of a flower.” — Helen Keller
10. “The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse.” — Helen Keller
11. “In utter loneliness a writer tries to explain the inexplicable.” — John Steinbeck
12. “A sad soul can kill quicker than a germ.” — John Steinbeck
13. “Please know I am quite aware of the hazards.” — Amelia Earhart
14. “When the world says ‘Give up,’ hope whispers ‘Try it one more time.’” — Unknown
15. “Always do what you’re afraid to do.” — E. Lockhart
16. “Don’t worry about losing. If it is right, it happens—the main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.” — John Steinbeck
17. “You can’t stop the future. You can’t rewind the past.” — Jay Asher
18. “Grief is a house where the chairs have forgotten how to hold us.” — Jandy Nelson
19. “The trouble with getting your hopes too far up is: it’s a long way down.” — Nicola Yoon
20. “Maybe growing up means disappointing the people we love.” — Nicola Yoon

Editor’s Picks: The Very Best Quotes for Teenage Girls

Eleven lines we would send our own sisters, daughters, and friends — the brightest of the collection.

Quotes for Teenage Girls: Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best quotes for teenage girls?

The best quotes for teenage girls are the ones that meet you where you are. Our Editor’s Picks above gather eleven favorites, from Michelle Obama’s reminder not to let anyone speak for you to Malala’s stand for girls’ voices. Start there, then browse the themes for whatever you need today: confidence, friendship, courage, or comfort.

How can quotes help build a teenage girl’s confidence?

Words shape how we talk to ourselves. Reading a line like “No one is you and that is your power” on a hard morning can interrupt the spiral of self-doubt. Many girls keep a favorite quote as a phone wallpaper or journal header so the reminder is there when confidence dips.

What is a good short quote for a teenage girl?

“She is clothed in strength and dignity.” This line from Proverbs 31:25 is one of the shortest and strongest quotes for teenage girls in our collection. It works as a caption, a mantra, or a note inside a birthday card. You will find more short ones in the section above.

Can I share these quotes for teenage girls on Instagram?

Yes — these quotes for teenage girls are perfect for captions, stories, and bio lines. Pair any short quote with a photo, or share one of our picture cards. If you need caption ideas, our Instagram captions for girls collection has plenty more.

More to Explore

If these quotes for teenage girls spoke to you, keep exploring:

• Confidence quotes to build unshakable self-belief
• Self-love quotes for embracing who you are
• Dream quotes to chase what sets your soul on fire
• Friendship quotes for your best friends
• Courage quotes for brave hearts
• Kindness quotes to soften the world
• Instagram captions for girls
• Education quotes for students and readers
• Ambition quotes to fuel your biggest goals
• Life quotes full of wisdom and warmth
• Happiness quotes for brighter days
• Hope quotes for the tough days