5 Millennial Women Who Prove You're Never Too Young To Change The World
"Girl power" isn't a new phrase. The Spice Girls helped start the conversation, Beyoncé let us know "who run the world" and A-list celebrities around the world are using their status to their advantage.
Social media and technology, as a whole, has allowed feminism to take on a whole new persona. Viral campaigns circulate daily to empower young girls, and to not let stereotypes or judgments stand in the way of pursuing one's dreams. Here are five Millennial women who are letting everyone know that neither age nor sex can stop them from changing the world:
1. Danielle Weisberg And Carly Zakin
These two news junkies started their careers at NBC. When they realized their Millennial peers weren't connecting to the stories they were producing, they decided to change the way people received (and understood) the news. They took two seemingly outdated avenues — morning news and email — and launched theSkimm. It is now one of the fastest growing e-newsletters, and it is targeted toward their female Millennial peers.
TheSkimm explains the news in the voice of your best friend, and is making us all smarter, one email at a time. Weisberg and Zakin breathe the real-life NYC success fairytale. It all started with an email.
2. Maurya Couvares
Maurya Couvares not only took the stereotype of “women can't code” to heart, but she also took it as a challenge. Today, Couvares is the co-founder and executive director of ScriptEd, which is a nonprofit that teaches students from underserved communities computer programming and places them in technology-based internships.
Couvares didn't just focus on helping women break into careers in tech. She also helped African American and Latino women, who currently make up less than 8 percent of the industry. Couvares is not only changing the world, but she is also changing the opportunities young minorities and underprivileged women have.
3. Emma Watson
Five years ago, you wouldn't associate Emma Watson with changing any world besides Hogwarts. Yet, in 2016, the "Harry Potter" star decided to take a year off Hollywood in order to focus on her work as a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador. This is specifically for the campaign HeForShe and her feminist book club, Our Shared Shelf.
It was her 2014 speech on feminism for HeForShe that first changed people's perceptions of her. At the ripe age of 25, Watson has proven that age and gender mean little when you have a voice and passion that mean so much.
4. Adeola Fayehun
"Keeping It Real With Adeola" is being described as the Nigerian version of "The Daily Show." The host, Adeola Feyhun, starts each show in front of graphics, while reporting on African news. Feyehun is a Nigerian woman working in New York. She started her show in 2011 for SaharaTV, an independent African news organization.
She had been working as a producer at the organization when a host left. The company needed a new show to fill the spot, so Fayehun agreed to host the show under one condition: She could do it her way. She covers stories that matter to her, with a hint of humor and a whole lot of sarcasm.
"Keeping It Real With Adeola" is the perfect show for her western Millennial peers, who were raised on the humor of Jon Stewart, but still want to stay updated on the news from their homes. Feyehun has boldly taken African news where it has never gone before.
Roseanne Barr said it best when she said, “The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it.” These women have learned, taken it and are still running with it. Get it, ladies.
