By Moboluwade Tobiloba
Women have played a major role in the evolution of today’s world — from science and technology to education, sports, among other areas.
Compared to ancient times when females were not allowed to do much beyond sitting at home, women in recent times are making remarkable impacts.
In communication of the International Day of the Girl Child, BlackBox Nigeria has put together 10 girls/women who have changed the world.
1. Malala Yousafzai
She is a Pakistani human rights advocate known for her activism in promoting education for girls. In 2012, when she was just 15 years old, a Taliban gunman shot her in an assassination attempt in retaliation for her work. At the age of 17, she received the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the youngest Nobel laureate. In 2013, she founded Malala Fund, an international, non-profit organization that advocates for girls’ education.
2. Anne Frank
She is a German-born Jewish girl who moved to the Netherlands during the Nazi regime. Anne Frank rose to fame following the publication of the diary she kept while hiding from the Gestapo. After her family was discovered and arrested, she died at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945 at the age of 15. Her father Otto — the only surviving family member — was moved reading her diary after the war and published it posthumously. It has been translated into more than 60 languages.
3. Alexandra Scott
She was a girl diagnosed with a form of pediatric cancer called neuroblastoma shortly before her first birthday. At the age of 4, she set up her first lemonade stand in her front yard to raise money for childhood cancer research. Inspired by her story, people around the world set up their own lemonade stands to raise money for her cause. By the time she died in 2004, she had raised $1 million. Her family continues her legacy through Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation.
4. Mary Shelley
Mary was just 18 years old when she wrote Frankenstein, which got many credits as the origin of science fiction. Thus, Shelley has been called “the teenage girl who invented science fiction
5. Capri Everitt
At the age of 11, the Canadian girl set out to raise money for orphaned and abandoned children. She achieved this by traveling with her family to 80 countries, where she sang each national anthem in the national language. Proceeds from her fundraiser went to SOS Children’s Villages.
6. Jazz Jennings
She was just 6 years old when she gave an interview to Barbara Walters for a television special about transgender children. Since that time, she’s continued to educate the world about what it means to be transgender. The LGBTQ activist and YouTube star has a TLC show called “I Am Jazz” and co-wrote a children’s book by the same name. Now 19, she regularly speaks out about issues affecting the trans community.
7. Yuan Yuan Tan
Tan was a Chinese ballet dancer who started representing her country in international competitions as a young teen. At 17, she became the youngest ever principal dancer at the San Francisco Ballet, as well as the first Chinese dancer to earn that title in a major Western company. She gives talks around the world, inspiring young dancers to follow their artistic dreams.
8. Naomi Osaka
She is a professional tenns player. Born to a Haitian father and a Japanese mother, Osaka has lived and trained in the United States since age three. She came to prominence at age 16 when she defeated former US Open champion Samantha Stosur in her WTA Tour debut at the 2014 Stanford Classic.
She is one of the world’s most marketable athletes, having been ranked eighth among all athletes in endorsement income in 2020. Osaka was named the 2021 Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year.
9. Vanessa Nakate
Nakate is an Ugandan climate justice activist. She grew up in Kampala and started her activism in December 2018 after becoming concerned about the unusually high temperatures in her country.
In October 2020, 23-year-old Nakate gave a speech at the Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecturers urging world leaders to “wake up” and recognise climate change as a crisis, linking it to poverty, hunger, disease, conflict and violence against women and girls. She also started The Green Schools Project, a renewable energy initiative, which aims to transition schools in Uganda to solar energy and install eco-friendly stoves in these schools. Nakate was named one of BBC’s 100 Women announced in November 2020. She was also on the Time100 Next list published in February, 2021.
10. Greta Thunberg
Swedish by nationality, the environmental activist is known for challenging world leaders to take immediate action for climate change mitigation. Thunberg initially gained notice for her youth and her straightforward speaking manner, both in public and to political leaders and assemblies, in which she criticised world leaders for their failure to take what she considers sufficient action to address the climate crisis.
The Guardian and other newspapers have described her influence on the World stage as the “Greta effect”. She received numerous honours and awards, including an honorary Fellowship of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, inclusion in Time’s 100 most influential people, being the youngest Time Person of the Year, inclusion in the Forbes list of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women (2019) and three consecutive nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize (2019–2021).
