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Just caught this early shout out from iheartdaily:

Just two years ago, the United Nations declared October 11th to be International Day of the Girl. The UN has said, “Girls face discrimination and violence every day across the world. The International Day of the Girl Child focuses attention on the need to address the challenges girls face and to promote girls’ empowerment and the fulfillment of their human rights.”   

This year's theme is "Empowering Adolescent Girls: Ending the Cycle of Violence."

Amen to that! Bravo, to the United Nations for this intentional focus. With their estimate of 200 million girls missing around the world due to gendercide, dowry infractions, and forced abortions of girls we need to stop and think and act.


Since the publication of FIRSTBORN, inspired by my outrage over gendercide, I've been trumpeting the work of All Girls Allowed. The nonprofit funds young women, pregnant with females, so they can carry their babies full term and keep them. They work to stop the intentional annihilation of girls. And then there's the Global Gendercide Advocacy and Awareness Project who takes internships, rgz! Or there's the movie which is absolutely chilling. Take a look at the trailer for IT'S A GIRL and then watch the full movie on NETFLIX.



I created a collection of posters on Polyvore to draw attention to gendercide. You can see the full group of 30 by clicking here. Share them and raise awareness.



Celebrate INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE GIRL! Read, reflect, and reach out, rgz!

A video just released ahead of the International Day of the Girl on October 11th. The campaign, Girls Not Brides, is using this day to focus world attention on the issue of child marriage.

LitWorld is a non-profit organization whose mission is “to use the power of story to cultivate literacy skills in the world’s most vulnerable children through advocacy, education and innovation”. On September 22nd, the International Day of the Girl, LitWorld invites everyone to partake in Stand Up for Girls: A Virtual Rally.

Two thirds of all the world’s illiterate people are women. On September 22, we will stand up for girls and their right to go to school and to learn to read and write. Let us join together to launch a campaign to advocate for a transformative new era in girls’ education.

Every girl has the right to a quality education that will ensure she has a lifelong way to protect herself, advocate for herself, learn what she wants to know and be who she wants to be. Every girl has the right to read and write words that will change her, and to write and tell stories to change the world.

Stand Up for Girls in 3 Easy Ways:

1) Spread the word about the event.

2) Stand Up. At noon your time on September 22, take ten seconds to physically stand up wherever you are (wear the Stand Up for Girls Badge!) to give recognition and awareness to the movement. Take a photo of yourself standing up for girls and post it on LitWorld’s Facebook wall.

3) March. Organize a Stand Up for Girls March or event in your classroom, workplace or neighborhood on September 22 to bring awareness to your community about the urgency of providing girls with a quality education.

By standing up for all girls everywhere, we invest in our future.

The Stand Up for Girls Rally is cosponsored by The Millennium Cities Initiative and Connect to Learn, projects of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Millennium Cities and Villages across Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia Initiatives with Ashita no Kai and Arpana in India, and The Children of Kibera Foundation in Kenya.