By the time this is posted, it will be April 1st, and Women’s History Month will be over, but since we missed a week for spring break, I figured I’d do just one last post to celebrate this wonderful month. Besides, it’s still March, as I’m typing this.
Little Miss Flint
In 2016, at just 8 years old, Mari Copeny wrote to President Barack Obama about the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. In response, Obama visited her in the town of Flint and brought national attention to the crisis.
Since then, Copeny worked to donate thousands of bottles of water to her hometown— resulting in her nickname, Little Miss Flint. Copeny is also the is the youngest Women’s March Youth Ambassador. In the video below, she stated, “If I had a superpower, it would be to change the world,” and I think she is definitely doing that.
Malala Yousafzai
In 2007, The District of Swat Valley was taken over by the Taliban, and experienced many drastic changes. Girls were no longer allowed to attend school, dancing and other cultural activities were banned, and even watching television was prohibited. Yousafzai was 10 years old when the changes were implemented. As a young girl, she valued education and yearned for knowledge. This could be a result of her father being an educator. Either way, Yousafzai was devasted by not being allowed to attend school. To make matters worse, in just a year, the Taliban had destroyed nearly 400 schools and had made the outlaw for education the foundation of their rule.
However, Yousafzai didn’t stay silent. Together, she and her father protested the orders of the Taliban and fought for girls’ right to education. She started an anonymous blog and wrote about life under the administration of the Taliban and having her rights taken away. Her activism and bravery were known widely. In 2011, she received the International Children’s Peace Prize and Pakistan’s National Youth Peace Prize. However, despite her efforts, not everyone supported Yousafzai. One day, while riding the bus, the Taliban found her and attempted to kill her. They shot her in the head and left her for dead. She was only 15. Fortunately, she pulled through and had a full recovery, and just 2 years after the event, she became the youngest person to receive a Nobel Peace Prize. When accepting the award, she said, “This award is not just for me. It is for those forgotten children who want education. It is for those frightened children who want peace. It is for those voiceless children who want change.”
Malala Yousafzai is a remarkable young woman whose story is inspiring and profound. She has been creating change since she was very young and faced adversity through most of her life and has lived to keep creating change and to tell her story.
April Ryan
April Ryan has been a White House correspondent for the last 23 years. She is also the bureau chief for American Urban Radio Networks. In 2017, she became a political analyst for CNN. She has made headlines for being the only correspondent asking tough questions and shedding light on urban issues. She has also been known to scuffle with the Trump administration, or in other words, calling him out on his “bullcrap”. Also, in 2017, Ryan was named “Journalist of the Year” by the National Association of Black Journalists for telling the truth about political issues, supporting, and keeping African-Americans informed.
America Ferrera
America Ferrera is most known for her role in the 2006 series, Ugly Betty, in which she won an Emmy for Outstanding Actress, making her the first Latina to do so. However, lately, Ferrera has been activating and advocating. She was a speaker at the 2017 Women’s March on Washington, a founding member of the 2018 Time’s Up movement, a partner in The North Face’s Move Mountains initiative, an advocate for the protection of people in the DACA program, and much more. In 2018, she published a collection of stories titled: American Like Me: Reflections on Life Between Cultures that features first-person narratives of life experiences between cultures. In doing all this, Ferrara also found time to star in the NBC comedy, Superstore, and have 2 children. She is, by definition, a “superwoman”. Ferrera may have played ugly Betty on screen, but she could never be anything less than phenomenal.
Tamika Mallory
Tamika Mallory is the daughter of Stanley and Voncile Mallory. Her parents instilled a passion for equality and activism in her at an early age. They were a part of the National Action Network (NAN), founded by Al Sharpton. It was the leading civil rights organization at the time. Following in her parents’ footsteps, Mallory began early in her activist work. She became a member of NAN at age 11, and in 2011, she became the youngest executive director of the organization. After nearly 15 years, Mallory stepped down to pursue other activism opportunities. She helped create the New York City Crisis Management System, a gun violence prevention program. She then went on to serve as co-chair of Gun Violence Awareness Month, an initiative created by the NYC Crisis Management System.
However, she is most known as one of the leading organizers of the 2017 Women’s March. Approximately, 500,000 people attended the march. Not only was it to advocate for women’s rights, but for immigration reform, LGBTQ+ rights, healthcare reform, environmental reform, racial justice and equality, and also, for the protest of the inauguration of Donald Trump.
Mallory is also a big advocate for the Black Lives Matter movement. She has been advocating for equality and social justice her entire life and she’s made tremendous strides in doing so.
Aly Raisman
Aly Raisman is an Olympic gymnast. In 2012 and 2016, she led the Women’s gymnastics teams, and has won numerous gold medals. Raisman is also one of the few women to speak out about the U.S. gymnastics team’s doctor. In 2018, she, along with other members of the team, publicly shared about the sexual abuse they experienced from the former doctor. She also gave an impact statement during the trial. Shortly after, Raisman filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Gymnastics saying that they knew or should’ve known about the ongoing abuse.
In 2018, she stood alongside other survivors and received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award for speaking out. ESPN called them “sister survivors”. Upon accepting the award, Raisman said, “My dream is that one day everyone will know what the words #MeToo signify. But they will be educated and able to protect themselves from predators like Larry so that they will never ever, ever have to say the words, ‘me, too.'”
Now, she has teamed up with Aerie for a body positivity campaign that advocating against Photoshop.
Yara Shahidi
You may know Yara Shahidi from Freeform’s Black-ish, or the spin-off, Grown-ish. However, Shahidi is not just an actress. She is using her platform to inspire and encourage young voters. She says, “There are two major problems: information dissemination and voter registration.”
In 2017, Shahidi founded Eighteen x 18 with social media influencer, NowThis, to help Gen Z to understand the importance of their voice and voting. Her work was brought to the attention of former First Lady, Michelle Obama. Consequently, she wrote her a letter of recommendation to Harvard University, where Obama’s eldest daughter, Malia, attends, as well.
Shahidi also has a partnership with the Young Women’s Leadership Network— Yara’s Club; it is an organization that provides online mentorship to help end poverty through education.
Shahidi is a passionate and outspoken young woman with a bright future ahead of her— on screen and academically.
Women’s History Month has come to an end, and it’s bittersweet. I am so happy that we have a month in which we can come together and commemorate the woman who’ve made strides to get us where we are today. I am so grateful for the strong woman who came before me and the ones that will sucede me.
Happy Women’s History Month! I hope everyone learned something that they didn’t know before and got a chance to honor an incredible woman who’s influenced them.
Maleigh coming through with the facts like always!