This Girl is on Fire

In honor of International Women's Day, I am reposting this blog from last year.

I vividly remember watching the documentary“Girl Rising”in 2013 with my dear friend.

I cried, I laughed and I smiled watching the journeys of nine girls coming of age in the developing world. My friend and I left the theater feeling deeply inspired and called to action.

Today I revisit this memory onInternational Women’s Day, a celebration dear to my heart. This day –– this time of year –– always energizes me as a writer and an aspiring activist.

International Women’s Day exists to “inspire change, challenge inequality, celebrate achievement and forge our daughters’ futures.”

I think World Pulse Founder Jensine Larsensays it best: “I have a burning, unquenchable hunger to know what the world will look like when women and girls experience freedom to live to their full potential.”

Globally, 66 million girls are not enrolled in school. In a single year, approximately 150 million girls are victims of sexual violence. Fourteen million girls under age 18 will be married this year.

As we learned from “Girl Rising,” educating girls can break cycles of poverty in just one generation, and education has a lasting affect on girls, families, communities and nations around the world.

The late great Nelson Mandela said, “Educationis the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,” and he couldn’t be more right.

Today, I am reminding myself to get out of my comfort zone and stretch my mind –– to delve more deeply into issues that affect women and to not become complacent with my own day-to-day life in Portland.

Today, I am celebrating my lovely mother, sister, grandmother, aunts, cousins, coworkers, roommates, friends, mentors, sheroes and the next generation of girls with twinkles in their eyes. I honor the memory of the foremothers who have gone before me.

Today, I am recommitting myself to the women’s movement and to a career focused on women’s empowerment.

Watch out, world.This girl is on fire!