By: Maddie Graham, Girl Scout
Last month, on Tuesday, October 11, 2016, Google hosted wonderful event, celebrating International Day of the Girl Child. And who better to cover this event than 31-6’s own Girl Scout Media Team, a team of teenage girls? The team was promised a wonderful night, and the event did not disappoint. The team started the night by learning how to make paper cranes, and teaching others how to make them. Each person wrote their favorite dream on the crane. It was quite pretty!
After the cranes (and quite a delicious spread of snacks), Memunatu Magazine, Google and Impact Hub treated all the guests to a wonderful panel of five wonderful women, Nina Oduru, Monica Jahan Bose, Yawa Hansen-Quao, Katie Riley, and Lauren Almonacid. Each of these women has done wonderful things for women and young girls, from stitching empowerment on Saris to encouraging women to start businesses. Each of the panelists explained what she’d done for girls so far, and what she planned for the future. Many also shared personal stories, of success, such as Ms. Yawa explaining how she’d been made fun of when she first moved to the United States from Africa, but rose above the criticism and is now successful. They explained why they were doing what they were doing, their inspirations, and stories of success. Topics such as sexism in business were touched on, and the panel seemed to agree that currently, women can be ignored, but that is slowly changing. One early quote from Ms. Oduru stuck with me: “We want to share this conversation with the world”. After the formal panel ended, the audience was able to ask questions. One of our own, Dana Graham, asked about the pay gap, prompting murmurs of “that’s a good question!”
Overall, International Day of the Girl Child was a wonderful experience. As a young lady, I certainly felt as if Memunatu, Google and Impact Hub had heard me, and were listening to me. I felt empowered to follow the dream I wrote on that crane, felt that if I worked hard, I could do it, could do anything I wanted to. It made me think about girls around the world, and how I could help them feel like I did. But most important, it made me proud to be a girl- and it most definitely made me proud to be a Girl Scout!
