I grew up with a #girldad.
My own dad, being the father of me and my sister, was, of course, on a technical level, a dad of two daughters.
But that is just the basic description. He was so much more than that.
He was – still is – a complete and total girl-dad.
He loved having girls, and would often declare that he was
so happy he had daughters, and never once did he ever wish to change that, or felt the need to have a boy to somehow not be so outnumbered at home. Which he was, of course – but he loved it.
My dad embraced being a girl-dad for all it was worth and spent our entire childhood ferrying me and my sister to-and-from gymnastic lessons and dance classes. He endured a house that was always filled to the brim with girls, giggly playdates and sleep-overs, as well as, of course, Barbie houses and My Little Ponies and lots and lots of lots of things that were pink and sparkly and so very, very girly.
Girl-dads don't mind these things – they know it's part of the deal and they revel in it.
Kobe Bryant was a girl-dad too. The basketball legend had four daughters with his wife Vanessa, and in a beautiful tribute to the star in the days following his death, SportsCenter anchor Elle Duncan revealed how she once met Kobe – and how being a girl-dad was the thing in his life he was the very most proud of.
Backstage at an ESPN event in NYC, "I saw him and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, that's Kobe. I've gotta get a picture for the ‘gram,'" Duncan recalled during the heartwarming tribute. "I didn't get it for a few minutes because, as I approached him, he immediately commented on my rather large, eight-month pregnant belly."
The 41-year-old wanted to know how she was feeling, when she was due and if she was expecting a son or a daughter. "'A girl,' I said and then he high-fives me: ‘Girls are the best.'" Duncan said. "I asked him for advice on raising girls seeing as though he quite famously had three at the time and he said, ‘Just be grateful that you've been given that gift because girls are amazing.'"
With youngest Bianka just over a year at the time, Duncan was curious whether he and Vanessa had more plans to expand. "He said that his wife Vanessa really wanted to try again for a boy but was sort of jokingly concerned that it would be another girl," she explained. "I was like, ‘Four girls, are you joking? Like, what would you think? How would you feel?' And without hesitation, he said, ‘I would have five more girls if I could. I'm a girl dad.'"
When Duncan asked the basketball star about his daughters and sports, he said that his oldest daughter was an accomplished volleyball player and that the youngest was a toddler, so tbd," the journalist added. "But that middle one, he said, ‘That middle one was a monster. She's a beast. She's better than I was at her age. She's got it."
That middle one, of course, was Gigi.
Visibly upset, Duncan continued:
"When I reflect on this tragedy and that half an hour that I spent with Kobe Bryant two years ago," Duncan said. "I suppose that the only small source of comfort for me is knowing that he died doing what he loved the most: being a dad, being a girl dad."
The beautiful and heartfelt tribute to the dad-and-daughter duo struck a chord with parents all over the worlds, and soon the hashtag #girldad was trending in social media, with many,
particularly dads, sharing photos with their own daughters:
