Influential Teens: Greta Thunberg

I first saw this video of Greta Thunberg when it showed up on my Instagram timeline about a year ago. I was in awe of her eloquent speaking as well as her strong ideas. So, I decided to do a little research on her.

Greta is a sixteen year old from Sweden. In 2018 she went on strike and would sit on the steps on parliament during school hours to protest the Swedish government for not taking radical measures in terms of climate change. According to the New Yorker Greta has actually been diagnosed with both ADHD as well as Autism. She is a fierce new voice for the younger generation and a strong advocate for addressing climate change.

I think this video is worth the watch. Greta has longer speeches a well as TED talks, but this is a short video that sums up who she is and what she stands for. In this speech at the UN, she speaks about the importance of small countries like Sweden to stand up and advocate as they "are never too small to make a difference." One line that I think is very poignant is when she says that in 2078 she would celebrate her 75th birthday and her children will ask about the government. She says that "maybe they will ask why you didn't do anything while there still was time to act. You say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes". This line is so crucial to her speech because not only does it connect climate change to her life and her future family but it shows how the government can save the planet and the future of people by acting now. I enjoyed this speech, and I will continue to follow Greta as she speaks more about climate change as I think she is such an influential person in our society today.

Photo: Hijab Protests in Iran

Finding an image about the protests in Iran was pretty difficult. I feel like there should be more coverage on what is happening there and how so many courageous women are standing up against their government.

This is a picture is screenshot from a video by "Now This is News". It is of a woman protesting Iran's hijab laws. A hijab is a scarf that covers the heads of woman girls in the religion of Islam. Some people view the hijab as "submission to God". In recent years more progressive Muslim woman have argued that the hijab is actually very degrading to women. This photo is of a woman holding up her hijab scarf on a stick and not wearing the hijab on her head as a sign to the Iranian government that their laws are unjust. In an article from the conversation, the hijab requirement laws are also being used to "justify violent assaults on women and girls in the streets". I think this photo is empowering because this woman is standing up against so many people and is risking her life for what she believes in. Woman are getting attacked for not wearing the hijab in public and have also been sentenced to lengthy jail sentences as well. I love this picture because it shows how fearless these woman in Iran are during their protests.

5 Things to Know about the Democratic Primary Debates

Whether or not you support President Trump it is important that you keep up with the Democratic candidates. More than 20 Democratic candidates are pursuing the nomination. These debates will give key insight to who these people are and what they stand for. Here's what you need to know!

1. How will they work?
The set up for the debates this year was a concern as there are more candidates than ever before. But, ultimately, the committee has decided to hold two nights of debates. Each night 10 democratic candidates will take the stand to debate.



2. When will they be?
Overall there will be a total of 12 primary debates in the coming months, but the first set will take place soon. The first two days of the debates will be Wednesday June 26 and Thursday June 27 from 9-11pm ET.
3.  Where can I watch it?
You can watch it on NBC, MSNBC, and Telemundo.

4. Who are the candidates?

• Bill de Blasio
• Tim Ryan
• Julian Castro
• Cory Booker
• Elizabeth Warren
• Beto O’Rourke
• Amy Klobuchar
• Tulsi Gabbard
• Jay Inslee
• John Delaney
• Marianne Williamson
• John Hickenlooper
• Andrew Yang
• Pete Buttigieg
• Joe Biden
• Bernie Sanders
• Kamala Harris
• Kirsten Gillibrand
• Michael Bennet
• Eric Swalwell

5. How where these people chosen?
Since there were so many people that announced that they were running, there had to be cuts when it came time to get serious and start the debates. So, in order to cut down the list of candidates, the Democratic National Convention has made some requirements. Those requirements say that the candidates have to have campaign contributions from at least 65,000 people and that they hit the 1% threshold in three separate polls. Those twenty names listed above were the lucky candidates to meet those two requirements and make it to the first democratic presidential primary debates of 2019!

Influential Teens: Yara Shahidi

Yara Shahidi has been someone that I looked up to for along time. I was introduced to her through one of her shows on ABC a couple of years ago. I really like her because she issuing her platform to promote the engagement of teens and she is only my age. I hope you all enjoy learning more about her as much as I did!



About Yara Shahidi:

• Yara was born on February 10, 2000 in Minneapolis
• She is a first generation American 
• Her breakout acting role came when she was cast as Zoey Johnson in Blackish 
• She is now acting in both Blackish and its college spin off show staring her character called Grownish.
• She started as a freshman at Harvard University in 2018

• Her mom is a commercial actress
• Her father was Prince's official photographer 
• One of her first cousins is an astronaut 
• Her second cousin is a famous rapper named Nas

Activist Achievements:

   Yara Shahidi partnered with Michelle Obama to attend an event by Glamour. Glamour worked with the White Houses Let Girls Learn Initiative for this event. Yara is a very vocal advocate for more women empowerment especially in terms of education. She became so close to Michell Obama that Obama actually wrote her college recommendation letter!                

Along with other young celebrities Yara Shahidi has been pushing for teenagers and young adults to get more involved in the field of politics. She is the founder of an organization called Eighteen x 18. 

• Eighteen x 18 is a "creative platform to engage our generation to speak our truth, get active, and vote"
• It is designed to empower young people to find out what they are passionate about and how they can change it
• #WeVoteNextSummit made by Eighteen x 18 brought together many accomplished young leaders and activists in order to show how important voting is for first time voters 
• It planned to encourage first time voters to vote in the primaries and midterm elections which tend to get lower numbers

Also, if you have the time I highly recommend watching her videos on Eighteen X 18 and #WeVoteNextSummit!

                                          

Yara is an amazing example of how young adults can use their fame and followers to reach out to many people and spread positive messages. Shahidi is doing a lot to inspire the younger generation into taking in to account how important it is to get involved in politics because it will affect them.

I hope that reading you are all able to watch the videos and learn even more about the amazing work that she is doing! I think there needs to be more famous girls like her engaging the youth because it can inspire many people. In the future I hope to write more about young women like her making a difference in this world. 

New Woman in the Senate

I have enjoyed seeing so many strong young women become interested in politics over the course of the past yea for two. I feel like the more women that make a name for themselves in the political atmosphere, the more women will feel inspired to stand up for their rights. The 2018 midterm election was something I wanted to write a little on because more women than ever before ran for political positions and more women than ever before won! I hope that you enjoy these bios on some new women in the senate!

Here are some statistics that I found when doing my research:

• 23 women were elected to the Senate on election night 2018
• 103 women will serve in the House in 2019
• Women make up about 40% of Democratic lawmakers (House and Senate combined)

Bios:

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez:

• U.S. Representative for New York's 14th congressional district
• Attended Boston University and studied economic and international relations
• After college she became a bartender and a waitress
• In college she worked for Senator Ted Kennedy in MA
• She was also a organizer for Bernie Sanders in 2016

Ayanna Presley:

• U.S. Representative for Massachusetts 7th congressional district 
• In 2009 she became the first woman of color to be elected to the Boston City Council 
• Worked as a senior aid for Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy III (https://pressley.house.gov/about)
• Volunteered for Senator Kerry re election campaign and went on to work for him for 13 more years
• In 2016 she was named one of the New York Times 14 Young Democrats to Watch

Ilhan Omar:

• U.S. Representative for Minnesota's 5th Congressional district 
• First Somali-American Member of Congress and previously in 2016 she elected to the Minnesota House of Representative making her the highest-elected Somali-American public official in the US 
• Fled Somalia when she was 8 and spent 4 years in a refugee camp in Kenya inevitably moving to the United States in 1997 
• Worked as a community director at the University of Minneapolis
• Policy Fellow at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs
• Senior Policy aid for the Minneapolis City Council

Rashida Tlaib:

• U.S. Representative for Michigan's 13th Congressional district
• In 2008 she became the first Muslim woman to serve in the Michigan state legislature 
• In 2019 she became the first Muslim woman in Congress
• She was an attorney at law at the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice 

Sharice Davids:

• U.S. Representative for Kansas's 3th Congressional district 
• Attended Johnson County Community College and the University of Missouri-Kansas City
• Earned a Law degree from Cornell Law school
• She is the first openly gay lawmaker to represent Kansas 
• She is one of two Native American women to ever serve in Congress 
• On the Transportation and Infrastructure and Small Business Committees

Deb Haaland:

• U.S. Representative for New Mexico's 1st Congressional district 
• Attended the University of New Mexico for her undergraduate education and the University of New Mexico Law School 
• In 2016 she was appointed as an Honorary Commander of Kirkland Air Base  
• 2012-2013 she served as Native American Caucus Chair for the Democratic Party of New Mexico
• She volunteered for Barack Obamas presidential campaign
• She is a former Tribal Leader 
• She is the first Native American woman in the country to chair a state party 

I am so happy with the fact that women, like the ones above, are advocating for what they believe in. I really liked making this post so that I could learn more about their ideas and platforms, and I hope that you enjoyed. reading about them too!

On the Basis of Sex

I have always looked up to Ruth Bader Ginsburg as she is one of only a handful of women that have ever had the privilege to serve on the Supreme Court. She has also been very vocal in her dislike of President Trump which has caught the attention of a lot of people. I was very excited to watch this movie to learn more about her life and her fight for gender equality.

On the Basis of Sex is a biographical movie about current Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The movie follows Ginsburg's pursuit of a Harvard Law School degree while dealing with the complications of having a family. Her husband becomes sick and she steps up to take both of their classes but inevitably drops out when her family moves to New York City for work. She finishes her degree at Columbia but struggles to find work as a woman in law, so she goes into teaching a course at a college. She is brought introduced to case in which a man felt as though he has been discriminated because of his gender. Ruth would go on to defend him in court in the hopes that if she won this case that the ruling could be used in cases where woman are discriminated.

I think that some biographical movies can have the tendency to be dull, but I found On the Basis of Sex to be a very inspiring and fast-paced movie.  I enjoyed that the audience was able to see how well Ginsburg handled both her marriage and her motherhood while maintaining a rigorous education. I found the scenes in which she was discriminated in, like the classroom scene where she is constantly raising her hand and her teachers calls on all the men around her, to be very accurate. Some scenes in movies that show discrimination of the sexes are super "out-there" and almost make you want to roll your eyes with how blatant they are but this scene showed how subtle these acts of discrimination can be. One scene that I found almost stomach churning was when the new class of law students were sitting at a table and the women were asked why they were taking a spot that could have gone to a man. This clip was eye-opening as I was able to see how woman were viewed by men when colleges first allowed them to attend. Ruth responded to that question in a comical way by saying she was there to be a "more understanding wife."


My favorite scene in the entire movie was when Felicity Jones (the actress who played RBG) is walking up the steps of the Supreme court and the camera pans by the doors and you can see the front of the actress, but it is not longer Felicity Jones but RBG herself. I found this moment so touching and such a perfect way to wrap a film about all her trials and tribulations to get where she is now.

One part of the movie that I feel should not be overlooked is how her husband is portrayed. In a world where many men see the feminist movement as an attack on their gender, Ruth's husband, Martin Ginsburg is a perfect person to debunk that male stereotype. He supports his wife's dreams even when people around her do not. Her husband helps her in her studies and her career and always pushes her to go after what she wants. I am very happy with how he was portrayed in this movie and I believe he is an important character to look to when men want to see how they can participate in the feminist movement and how they can support the women in their lives.

Overall I think this movie is an amazing portrayal of such an important feminist figure and everyone should definitely see this awe-inspiring film. I have told many of my friends to watch this film as I feel like it is such an amazing story about feminism. I hope that you all will watch it as well as I enjoyed it so much and I know that you will too!

The Hypocrites

I feel like I might as well get this very controversial topic out of the way early. And by topic I mean Abortion, which has become somewhat of a feminist topic in itself. First, I want to talk about when this all started. In a very well known Supreme Court case called "Roe v. Wade" women were granted the constitutional right to be able to have an abortion. Recently many states such as Alabama and Georgia have gotten both immense backlash for their new restrictive abortion laws. Not only is Alabama's recent abortion ban the most restrictive in the USA at the moment, but doctors who perform these abortions could receive up to 10 years in prison.

I am not here to write about my own views on abortion, though I may get into that in later post. But, I want to write about the hypocrisy of these abortion laws. The right wingers love to use the Constitution to back up their arguments such as the right to bear arms. So let's look at the First Amendment. It says that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion". However, Republican Senator Clyde Chambliss defended Alabama's bill by saying "when God created the miracle of life inside a woman's womb," he said, "it is not our place as human beings to extinguish that life". Chambliss is not the only one who has defended abortion bans by saying something about God. According to the New York Times, Republican Senator Mike Hill defended the Alabama's bill by saying that God spoke to him and told him to pull his heartbeat bill and make a more restrictive bill. My problem with these claims is that they are coming from people who have time and time again supported the Constitution, but when it does not match what they believe they decide to look past it. For instance, both Georgia and Alabama allow the death penalty which contradicts this value of being "pro-life".

Personally, I do not have anything against religion. I am confirmed in the Catholic church and have attended Catholic school for 12 years. But, as I have said many times before, it is not my place to put any of my beliefs onto another person, especially when it has to do with their life and their body, and these politicians should not be allowed to do so either. I am not going to sit back and watch these men use religion as a crutch and are so hypocritical. It is important that we not only continue to fight against these bills that are against the best interests of women, and that we get out and vote because it can make a big difference.

Why is Social Media Important?

Social media is one of the most powerful tools in society today, and for that reason, it is crucial that we understand it. According to Statista 2.77 billion people use social media platforms around the world. Not only is that number already huge but it is projected to jump to 2.9 billion in 2020 and 3.02 billion users in 2021. These social media platforms, mostly Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, hold a lot of power in terms of how many people they can reach. I know that more young people are getting involved in politics because of the ease of social media. For instance, just this week, my Instagram feed has been filled with posts about abortion bans, the unfair treatment of cows by Fair Life, and even the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. People I follow are uploading pictures and information to their stories, and through that, they can reach all of their followers and share their politically rooted messages to many people. Not only are their followers able to repost their messages, but they are also able to be aware of what is happening if they are a person who does not usually follow the news.

I have been able to learn a lot by reading posts by people on my social media platforms. While it is important that social media provides people across the world with information about the crisis happening around the globe, one should also do their own research. I personally enjoy social media because what I see is usually geared to what I agree with. However, it is important to go outside your social media bubble as a lot of the news is catered towards you. On Facebook, a user can filter what posts they see or do not see. To be a well-informed citizen, one must read up and understand both sides of an argument to be able to shape their own opinion.

In a study done by PEW Research in 2018, 71% of 18-24 year-olds use Instagram, 78% use Snapchat, and 45% use Twitter. These are huge numbers and should not be taken for granted. With how many young people social media reaches, it is so impressive that politics has become such a common topic to find posts about on these platforms. The current political climate is very heated, some may say.  There is a clear political divide in the nation, and that was seen very vividly in the 2016 election. Not only has social media boomed in the years since 2016, but the current president also takes advantage of social media, specifically Twitter, to speak with people. According to an article by the New York Post, “young people feel more politically empowered than ever.” I believe that social media has made that possible for young people. Through social media, young adults can put their voices out into the world like never before. While many things cannot be fixed with social media platforms, no one can dispute the effect that it has had across the world and how it has been able to engage young adults in current events like never before.

What is Feminism?

The word feminism can bring up a lot of different emotions in many people. Some people, like myself, are fascinated with the new generation of women who are fighting for gender equality, while others feel like feminism is an attack on men. To understand what my blog posts will focus on, I would like to describe what feminism is. Feminism, by definition, is the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of equality of the sexes. Feminism is not a fight against men or a movement in which women are more important than men. The movement fights against the oppression of women in all aspects of life.  Those who take part in feminist advocacy speak about topics such as the wage gap or reproductive rights, and this blog will hopefully touch on those different topics. Now, with that out of the way, I would like to say that I am very excited to start this blog. I want to share stories of the power of social media in terms of the feminist movement as well as in politics and the amazing women, and hopefully men, that are taking part in this movement. I am looking forward to your reactions and feedback along this journey!