International Day of the Girl: Stories show the power and potential of girls to change the world

Girl Rising My Story Challenge

Girls' education, Global Youth Ambassadors, Sarah Brown

The range of entries submitted to Girl Rising's storytelling challenge was praised by Theirworld Chair Sarah Brown, who was on the judging panel. 


The voices of ordinary people doing extraordinary things have been recognised in a global storytelling challenge to mark International Day of the Girl today.

The Girl Rising campaign received 1,500 entries in a variety of languages from 90 countries. Fifteen Showcase Stories were selected that demonstrate how girls and young women are fighting for racial justice, gender equity and education.

The judges for My Story: The 2020 Girl Rising Storytelling Challenge included Sarah Brown, Chair of Theirworld and Executive Chair of the Global Business Coalition for Education. 

She said: “What I loved about the range of stories in The Girl Rising Storytelling Challenge is how they open up new ways into the direct experiences of these young women in a creative, exciting and thought-provoking way. 

“We desperately need new narratives to build a more accurate, tolerant and inclusive picture of our world – and these stories do just that.”

Girlr Rising and partner HP revealed the final 15 stories, which best showed the power and potential of girls, during the campaign’s International Day of the Girl summit yesterday.

Actor, activist and Girl Rising Ambassador Freida Pinto – who was also on the judging panel – said: “No one can argue that we are living through extraordinary times. Alongside the suffering and devastation there are stories of transcendence, beauty, hope and the triumph of the human spirit.”

Also for International Day of the Girl, some of Theirworld’s Global Youth Ambassadors have recorded special videos to celebrate the 2020 theme of “My voice, our equal future”.

Watch Gladys Bolawa’s inspiring message to girls (below) and hear the voices of other Global Youth Ambassadors on the Theirworld Twitter and Facebook pages.

Theirworld has produced a comprehensive information toolkit called The Key, which can equip anyone to make a robust case for education. It has all of the talking points, pitch decks, facts and infographics needed – and is broken down into topics. Check out The Key’s resource on Education and Girls.


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