Guy And ?

This is a random thought but I wish there was a female equivalent of the word "guy". There's woman and man, boy and girl, and just guy. The reason I wish there was is so people could refer to females my age by that term. I know I'm not really a "girl" anymore but it's strange calling me a "woman".

Oh my God, I just remembered that Brittney Spears song "I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman". God help me if that has any significance to my life!

Some of my friends were talking about this a few years back, but it didn't have that much significance to me back then because I didn't look older than my age and at 16/17, everyone referred to me as a girl. But now, especially in the bookshop (where I work), customers refer to me as a 'lady' which is almost an equivalent of 'woman'. At first it felt really strange but now I'm sort of used to it. Some people still call me 'girl' so I guess there's some sort of a balance.

Some people call females my age "chicks" but I absolutely can't stand it. I find it a bit degrading to compare girls with chicken. I know some girls actually like it and refer to other girls as "chicks" because they think it's a cute term but I don't find anything cute about it. How would a guy feel if people called him a "chick"? He'd probably find it funny at first but after a while, it'd get really annoying.

Does anyone have any suggestions what female equivalent of 'guy' should be?