Given the current climate, it is imperative that our Instagram feeds are inspirational. You might not know their names (yet), but you’ll be thankful for what they’ve done for womankind.
Amika George
During high school Amika founded the #FreePeriods movement. She decided to take action after reading about how many girls miss school as they could not afford sanitary products. At just 17-years-old she decided to take her petition to Westminster. In March 2019, Philip Hammond – also known as chancellor of the exchequer – announced that secondary schools would receive funding to buy period products for vulnerable students.
However, this wasn’t good enough for Amika and the #FreePeriod movement; they continued to campaign so that they were free for all students – including those in primary school. April 2019 saw them achieve this goal! For more information, visit https://www.freeperiods.org/.
Melina Abdullah
Melina is one of the founding members of Los Angeles’ Black Lives Matter movement. Their website states:
‘Our intention from the very beginning was to connect Black people who have a shared desire for justice to act together in their communities’. She is also the chair of the Pan-African department at California State University. For more information, visit https://blacklivesmatter.com/.
Scarlett V Clark
Scarlett is the award-winning CEO of this platform, Smart Girl Tribe. The UK’s number one female empowerment organisation boasts a top-rated podcast, merchandise and a wildly successful event series. Scarlett created the hub at only 19-years-old upon realising that major publications were only focusing on sex, weight and boyfriends. She wanted a platform to discuss issues that matter.
Gina Martin
Gina was at a music festival when she noticed a guy looking at a photo on his phone. The picture was of a woman’s crotch. She realised it was her crotch. And he’d taken it without asking and without her knowing. From then on she made it her mission to change the law on upskirting. In February 2019, upskirting was made illegal in the UK.
Sally A Nuamah
Dr. Sally A. Nuamah is an award-winning scholar, author, advocate, and filmmaker whose work explores issues of race, gender, education policy, and political behaviour. Her phenomenal book How Girls Achieve examines the experiences of girls that attend non-elite schools both in the U.S. and Africa. It highlights the specific role of Feminist schools, and public policy, as conduits of equity and democracy.
Tarana Burke
It seems that #MeToo began with Harvey Weinstein. However, Tarana started the movement in 2006. Tarana is currently the senior director of the Girls for Gender Equity – a non-profit organisation which tackles issues which girls and young women face on a daily basis. For more information, visit https://metoomvmt.org/ and https://www.ggenyc.org/.
Laura Bates
Laura is a feminist activist who founded the everyday sexism project. She graduated from Cambridge University and shortly after while working as a nanny noticed that many of the young girls she took care of were already worried about their body image. The aim of the website is to: ‘record stories of sexism faced on a daily basis, by ordinary women, in ordinary places.’ In 2014, she released a book of the same title and her latest novel, The Burning was released last year. For more information, visit https://everydaysexism.com/.
