We started doing programming on Girls Right’s in 2008 with Plan Canada and MTV because we had all co-produced together a documentary “Girls of Latitude” which looked at the lives of teenage girls in conflict zones (Haiti, Colombia and South Sudan). We knew that there were many similarities between girls in Canada and their peers overseas and had a great run to over 150 schools across Canada with that program looking at the stories of girls globally. However during that program we always got feedback from students and teachers about wanting to focus more on content and issues affecting girl’s right here in towns and cities across Canada. Due to those requests the new program focusing on girls in Canada was born. We know that girls face many different challenges, stereotypes and socialite stigmas that boys do not experience to the same extent. It is important to take time out for girls only events like this program for girls to talk about their feelings and meet with female role models from a variety of backgrounds.

I went to a nearly all white and wealthy high school in Ottawa where I grew up.  As a half Ukrainian and half Ethiopian/Eritrean I have really curly hair , and throughout high school I fought my hair trying all  means to straighten it and lighten the color so that I could have a hair style like the other girls at school. I also wanted to dress like them and have my entire wardrobe from Club Monaco like everyone else.  This resulted in me cutting off all my hair really short in grade 11 and creating my own wardrobe with clothing repurposed from the Salvation Army. Looking back this was likely since I wasn’t seeing anyone else like me at school or in the media to look up. The only black person I recall seeing on TV in those years was Tyra Banks on the Fresh Prince of Bel Air where she had long straight and blonde hair.

I had a bully experience in  high school. At the time I thought he was a racist skin head neo Nazi who told me he was going to blow up my black history month assembly, defaced my locker and drew pictures of me on blackboards. Looking back I realized that he was actually a sad and lonely boy acting out to try to get attention in the wrong way. But like you have said I only faced my tormentor at school I didn’t have to deal with him over my cell phone or online. Young people need to know that you can report these types of things, whether it be to the social media site you are on, to a teacher or to services like Kids Help Phone. You also need to know when to turn off the internet and how to protect your privacy so that only people who really are your friends are able to contact you.

I have always been inspired by Alice Walker, she used her writing and books to tell stories of women that were not normally told in the mainstream media and in doing so she gave them a voice. That is what I hope to accomplish through my work.

Young people have to do volunteer work in Ontario to graduate that is a great opportunity to get involved with organizations that support women and girls locally. Our goal is to get students talking about issues they are facing in their schools. Get them talking with their friends, with the boys at their school, in the classroom and maybe ever at the dinner table at home. If they also want to volunteer or fundraise that is great. We also encourage girls to consider creating their own artistic works (plays and songs or poems) to continue spreading the ideas they have learned in their community.