By Tammy Tibbetts, Co-Founder and CEO
I’ll never forget the first International Day of the Girl, October 11, 2012.
I organized an assembly for She’s the First with the Young Women’s Leadership School in Brooklyn.
The principal held up the front page news: two days earlier, the Taliban had shot 15-year-old education activist Malala Yousafzai in the head on her school bus.
The United Nations declared this day to recognize girls' rights and unique challenges. With Malala’s story, the world now understood why we needed it.
Over the past decade, Day of the Girl has sometimes felt heavy (last year especially) and other times celebratory.
My question for us now is: What do we want this Day of the Girl to feel like? And most importantly, how will we turn our feelings into action?
Let’s fast forward 12 years for some inspiration.
Last month, I had the surreal opportunity to witness girls from She’s the First programs speak out beside Malala, outside the UN. (I was heavily involved in organizing the moment, along with my peer leaders at other global non-profits.)
Standing on my kitchen step ladder, Malala demanded world leaders listen to girls’ stories and address the dangerous realities millions of them face. In turn, Malala listened to every girl who wanted to speak, including Sania, Allison, Serena (our Girl Activist Fellows) and Joan (a Girl-Centered Incubator Fellow), making them feel brave enough to be unapologetically stern about what girls want.
It gave me goosebumps.
I wish I could say 12 years led to bigger strides in ending child marriage, educating girls, eradicating gender-based violence, and increasing reproductive rights. Not yet. But I can tell you that in 12 years, I have seen a movement for girls’ education change into a revolution for their rights.
I see girls pounding the pavement of their communities, organizing activism projects, writing the books they wish they’d had, running for student office, pushing adults around them to do better. I see organizations partnering like never before.
Tomorrow, as a supporter to feminist organizations, I know your inbox will be full. We’re sending you three stories. Each message is crafted intentionally and with the courage of a girl who agreed to tell her story, as her contribution to the movement. Tomorrow, I hope you’ll reflect and reaffirm yours, in whatever shape that takes.
Keep marching,
Co-Founder & CEO
She’s the First