Girl Lady Woman

During class, we talked about what are the difference of girl and woman.  In most of the dictionary, girl is a female child, and a woman is an adult female.  I wonder what lady is then.  I have just turned 19.  I remember the day I turned 18, my uncles and aunts called me a young lady.  They even wrote on the birthday card, ” You’re a grown up young lady now!”  Well a little information of myself, I came from Hong Kong and I went to a boarding school in Massachusetts.  I go back to Hong Kong during long breaks, such as summer and Christmas.  In Hong Kong everything is legal when you turn 18.  Driving age and drinking age is at 18.  18 in Hong Kong is like being 21 in the states.  It makes me wonder, if I’m a young lady because I turned 18 then should I be called a woman when I turn 21 ?  At the same time, I struggled thinking if I’m in the states I should still be called a girl because I’m not 21 yet.  I figured you cannot call a female human being by her age.  You never know someone’s age without knowing her.

I thought about Britney Spear’s song, “I’m not a girl, not yet a woman”.  There’s one verse which has the definition of girl and woman:

I’m not a girl,
There is no need to protect me.
It’s time that I
Learn to face up to this on my own.
I’ve seen so much more than you know now,
So don’t tell me to shut my eyes.

My conclusion is that a girl is a female who dresses very childish and thinks in a very innocent way.  A woman is a grown up female who has ability to protect herself from danger and could take care herself.  Last but not lest, a lady is a female who dresses mature, however she does not have full ability to take care of herself, a person who is in between girl and woman.