4 girls who are changing the world

Twenty years after the UN’s Beijing Declaration, when governments committed to “protect and promote the human rights of women and girls”, we’ve made a lot of progress in reducing gender inequality. And yet girls still face more obstacles than boys.

For example, each year, 15 million girls are married before they are 18, robbing them of their childhood. Gender-based sex selection before birth accounts for 1.4 million “missing” girls every year. And girls are twice as likely as boys to be malnourished.

Closing the gender gap between boys and girls is not just every nation’s moral duty: it would also bring huge benefits across countries and for generations to come. These four inspiring girls show that unless we can achieve gender parity, we’re depriving the world of some incredible people.

Malala Yousafzai

“One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world.”

Malala Yousafzai first caught international attention in 2009 when her diary – where she wrote about her dream of seeing all children access education – was published on BBC Urdu. She was writing from her home in the Swat Valley, Pakistan, after the Taliban had issued an edict banning girls from attending school.

Three years later – and by now a well-known activist, despite being just 15 years old – a Taliban gunman boarded her school bus and shot her in the head and neck. But even an assassination attempt couldn’t stop her: she went on to make a full recovery and became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Jazz Jennings

“Being transgender isn’t a problem. It isn’t an illness. It’s just who you are.”

Growing up is not always easy, and transgender youth often have to overcome more hurdles than other children. For example, more than 50% of transgender young people will have attempted suicide at least once by their 20th birthday, and a disproportionate number of them are affected by homelessness.

One brave girl, Jazz Jennings, has become something of a role model for the transgender youth community. At six years old, she was the youngest transgender person to appear on US television. Eight years later, she has her own television show, where she shares the story of how she learned to love who she was. “I really just want to spread my love and happiness towards other people. I’ve been able to find happiness, and I’ve learned to love myself. That’s a huge accomplishment for anyone: learning to love yourself,” she told an interviewer last month.

https://twitter.com/JazzJennings__/status/636727223198871553

Noujain Mustaffa

“You should fight to get what you want in this world.”

Over 10 million Syrians have been affected by the country’s civil war and are in need of humanitarian assistance. It’s such a staggeringly high number that we sometimes forget about the individual human tragedies – and stories of resilience – behind the figures.

Noujain Mustaffa’s bravery has helped put a human face to the crisis. Disabled from birth, the wheelchair-bound teenager managed to teach herself perfect English by watching soap operas in her home country. This year she made the long and dangerous journey from Syria to Europe. Now that she has claimed asylum in Germany, she hopes to learn how to walk and “to prove to people that dreams really can come true”. The BBC journalist who followed her throughout part of her treacherous journey described Noujain as “extraordinary”.

Olivia Hallisey

“We have to work together to find answers to the enormous challenges that threaten global health, our environment and our world.”

The Ebola epidemic that started in 2014 and spread across West Africa killed over 11,000 people, destroyed entire communities and cost the three worst-hit countries $1.2 billion. Olivia Hallisey, a 17-year-old American high school student, noticed how fast the disease spread within villages and set out to develop a way of limiting its reach.

Last month, her Ebola test kit won her the top prize in Google’s annual Science Fair. Compared with current tests for the virus, which cost $1,000 and can take up to 12 hours to provide a diagnosis, Olivia’s invention costs just $25 and can be put together in around 30 minutes. She told Google about the inspiration behind her prize-winning project: “The concentration of fatalities in Ebola-stricken areas has left many children orphaned, and the socio-economic fabric of entire villages destroyed. School closures have impacted over 5 million children, risking permanent educational dislocation and high-risk behaviour, such as child labour. Early diagnosis and proper medical care are critical to containing and eliminating the spread of Ebola and any other contagious illnesses.”

Have you read?
This is what the world’s education gender gap looks like
A new ratings system will assess schooling for girls worldwide
How to tackle gender imbalances in higher education

Author: Stéphanie Thomson is an Editor at the World Economic Forum

Image: Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai poses with the medal and the diploma during the Nobel Peace Prize awards ceremony at the City Hall in Oslo December 10, 2014. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett