International Day of the Girl – How You Can Join In

Today marks International Day of the Girl Child – a chance to celebrate girls worldwide and reflect on how we can all help girls to overcome the daily challenges they face in education, gender equality, reproductive justice, body positivity and more. Here are a few ideas for how you can get involved…

International Day of the Girl Child is celebrated annually on October 11th. Launched by the UN in 2012, it’s a day to both promote girls’ empowerment and also highlight the challenges that young women and girls face all over the world. According to UN Women, by the age of 6, girls already consider boys smarter than them, and an average of 12 million girls under18 will be married this year alone.  This year’s theme, ‘With Her: A Skilled GirlForce’, inspires and supports the 1.1 billion girls on the planet to take charge of their own future through education, open conversation, investing in training and inspiring them to leadership.

Here’s how you can take part:

JOIN IN – Get involved with one of the many events taking place around the world. In London today there will be a panel talk hosted by mothers2mothers and a 5K run with Girls Gotta Run kicking off from Tate Britain.  If you missed today’s events, on October 27^th you can join 100 young advocates at the Girl Up Leadership Summit – did we mention it’s hosted at Walt Disney? 

READ THIS – If you’re looking for an empowering read, check out the following:

– Scarlett Curtis’ new book Feminists Don’t Wear Pink (And Other Lies)  – an anthology of pieces written by the likes of Emma Watson, Keira Knightley, Jameela Jamil and others on the topic of feminism.   

– Nobel peace prize winner Malala Yousafzai’s autobiography I am Malala is an inspirational story of her fight for girls education against the Taliban in Pakistan.

– Because I am A Girl by Joanne Harris is a powerful collection of interviews with seven young women in developing countries who are facing issues such as child marriage and malnutrition.