These young women are proof that no matter your age, sex or race, young girls can change the world and make a positive impact on our future. They say the future is female and they weren’t wrong.
Greta Thunberg
In recent years this young woman has become a household name, known for her climate-changing activism at such a young age. Now 18 years old, Greta began her activism at home, convincing her parents to make lifestyle changes that would better benefit the world. At the young age of 15 she spent days outside Swedish Parliament protesting for stronger action on climate change. In 2019 she made headlines for her powerful speech at the United Nations where she laid blame for climate change solely on the previous generations and demanded that they do better and rectify the damage. She has gone on to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize (twice), Time Person of the Year Award, Ambassador of Conscience Award and many more.
Amika George
At age 17 Amika founded the Free Periods movement after she found that as many as 10% of young girls were skipping school because they couldn’t afford period products. The Free Periods campaign advocated for free menstrual products to be provided in all schools and colleges within the UK. As part of the campaign she also argued that boys need to be better educated about periods, to remove the stigma around them. Young women still have a long way to go in fighting for equal rights in this area, it was only this year that the ‘Tampon Tax’ was abolished and is no longer considered a “non-essential/luxury goods” product.
Marley Dias
Most children are just happy to get through the school day and think of it no more than that, but at age 10, Marley Dias realised there was something severely wrong with the way education was being presented to her. Teachers would assign young Marley and other students predominantly white-based children’s books, which prompted Marley to wonder where all the books were that featured black girls as the main character? She decided to collect 1000 books with black girl leads and send them to her mother’s childhood school in Jamaica. Why Jamaica you ask? “I didn’t pick my own school because I realised that even in all-black spaces like Jamaica, where it is majority black people, they don’t see themselves, and the narratives of white people are still being pushed on to people.” Now at age 15, Marley has helped disperse more than 12,000 books throughout the education system, her work has taken her to the White House and she has even gone on to write her own book Marley Dias Gets It Done: And So Can You!
Emma Gonzalez
It seems like just yesterday the eyes of the world were transfixed on Emma as she gave a heartfelt emotional speech advocating for gun control just a few days after surviving a school shooting that left 17 dead and 17 injured. In the wake of the tragedy, Emma went on to co-found the group Never Again and helped organize the gun control advocacy event, March For Our Lives in Washington, DC. Emma continues to be an activist on gun control and inciting the conversation amongst young people about how they can make a change.
Millie Bobby Brown
Celebrity status aside, at the young age of 14 Millie was the youngest person to be appointed to an advocacy role by the United Nations headquarters to mark World Children’s Day. She is the youngest ever goodwill ambassador for the charity Unicef and stands for anti-bullying and poverty amongst children. She continues to use her voice and status to inspire the youth on overcoming these important topics that are still prevalent within schools today.
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