Since 2012, 11 October has been marked as the International Day of the Girl. The day aims to highlight and address the needs and challenges girls face, while promoting girls’ empowerment and achievements.
This year, GFS is on a mission to celebrate all the awesome girls and young women who have used their voices to make a change. Meet the girls and young women focused on making a real difference.
Amika George
Amika George is a student and founder of #FreePeriods. Her activism began when she found out that many young women in the UK struggle to afford basic sanitary products each month – this leads to anxiety, missing lessons and feeling ashamed.
Amika and other supporters have already made tremendous change on the issue (the government has pledged to give more than £1 million to supporting young women from low-income families). Nevertheless, more needs to be done – all young women who receive a free lunch should also receive free sanitary products.
Learn more about the campaign and sign the petition here.
Siobhan Reddy
There are few women more powerful than Siobhan Reddy in the multi-billion pound gaming industry. Siobhan, who has won a range of awards in game development and digital technology (including Microsoft), is a strong advocate for diversity in the workplace and is persistent in her desire to see more women at the top of their game!
Tiera Guinn
According to a YouGov poll, more than half of the UK population can’t name one famous female scientist.Here’s one awesome woman that we should ALL know the name of – Tiera Guinn . At 23, Tiera is already working with NASA as an award winning structural design engineer (in other words, she designs rockets). Pretty cool right?
Rupi Kaur
Rupi Kaur is an Indian born poet, performer and artist. At Just 25, she has already become a role model for millions of girls and young women online & empowers them to be the best they can be.
Elyse Fox
Elyse Fox runs Sad Girls Club, an online and in-person community dedicated to promoting mental health awareness among young women. The 27-year-old got her start on Tumblr, where she wrote about struggling with depression. She released a short documentary about her mental health called Conversations with Friends one year ago.
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