By Janae Phillips, Advocacy Programs Manager

She’s the First is proud to announce our 2024-2025 Girl Activist Fellowship cohort! The Girl Activist Fellowship is an 18-month program where girls* learn grassroots organizing skills by planning and executing their own campaigns for girls’ rights. Last year’s cohort organized international poetry celebrations for education, simultaneous art gallery openings in New York City and Nairobi for sexual and reproductive health rights, wrote a children’s book to teach young girls how to report domestic and sexual violence, and worked with peers at the front lines of the movement against female genital mutilation to spread awareness about the issue.

We received over 400 applications for this year’s cohort, and after an intensive and competitive process are thrilled to introduce you to the 31 girls who will represent She’s the First as Girl Activist Fellows.

*gender-nonconforming, genderfluid, transfeminine experiences included.

Who are the Girl Activist Fellows?

This year’s cohort is our most diverse to date, representing 17 countries and a broad spectrum of lived experiences. 

• 6% are the first in their family to go to school

• 30% are immigrants

• 13% are Indigenous

• 23% are LGBTQIA+

• 6% are from a crisis-affected region

• 50% are a racial or ethnic minority, and 33% are a religious minority in their respective countries

The girls selected for this fellowship showed a deep commitment not only to girls' rights but to the needs and strengths of their communities. They are representatives of She’s the First’s commitment to grassroots leadership.

What’s it like to be a Girl Activist Fellow?

For the next 12 months, Girl Activist Fellows will meet twice a month to learn key campaign organizing skills directly from She’s the First staff. Working in teams, these girls will then identify an issue they want to address and develop a campaign around that issue from start to finish. Then, in the Spring of 2025, the Fellows will execute their visions as official She’s the First advocacy campaigns. For She’s the First, it’s one of our best examples of girl-centered work becoming girl-led.

Experience the first cohort’s advocacy campaigns and learn more about the need for this fellowship.