so when I was in seventh grade I moved
to a new school in a new city kind of a
raise of hands for everyone who’s in
seventh grade okay a lot of you so I was
terrified of moving to this new school I
had been at the same school for the last
eight years with the same friends we
played on the same soccer team and we’re
in the same Girl Scouts true it’s safe
to say I was not well equipped for
change so when my mom told me I had to
take a test to see what math class I
would be placed in I transferred all my
anxiety about starting at a new school
on to this one test
so like any mature eleven-year-old I
concocted a plan to get out of taking
the test every time I passed my mother I
would cough or make subtle comments
about how warm it felt inside even
though I had already turned up the air
conditioning I hope that over this
week’s time I could convince her that I
was way too sick to go and make take
this test so on the night before I was
supposed to take the test I knew I had
to go all in I came to her room and I
said mom I really want to take this test
but if I’m sick on the first day of
school because I pushed myself too hard
to take this test well then I’m gonna
start the year off on the wrong foot so
my mom who’s a very nice woman
capitulated and called the school and
rescheduled on the first day of my math
class the teacher went over all the
topics we would be covering that year
and one by one I realized I’d already
learned all this stuff to be completely
honest I was thrilled I was going to be
able to coast through seventh grade math
without ever having to study my parents
on the other hand a little less thrilled
and immediately my mom called the school
and scheduled another placement exam I
found out that I would be placed in the
eighth grade advanced algebra class and
I was terrified I hadn’t made any
friends yet at this new school and I
knew that if I was the one dork in the
8th grade math class the making friends
would get a little harder for me in the
upcoming weeks so on that day that I
moved into my new class I was shaking I
spent ten minutes outside the door of
that classroom walking back and forth
pacing just trying to convince myself to
take that step into the classroom
finally I realized I would have to enter
the room of venture
so I just went in immediately one of the
boys in the classroom stood up and
looked at me and goes are you lost I was
terrified I didn’t know what to say so I
just giggled and kind of looked at the
ground avoided eye contact he was not
satisfied with that response so he asked
me again are you sure your loss the
elementary schools in a different
building I was so sad sure I was five
four feet and a half tall
I weighed maybe 70 pounds I didn’t look
like your typical seventh grader but I
was not in elementary school I was so
offended I wish I could tell you that
this story ended with me wowing my
classmates earning their friendship
their respect and that that boy who made
fun of me is still my friend today but I
can the next week I moved out of the
state and I never looked back I’m not
here to tell you that that’s the way
that you should behave in fact I’m here
to tell you the opposite but I want you
to know that the people who stand on
this stage
we haven’t always been as confident as
we seem today we were the girl who ran
out of her math class crying after
someone called you an elementary school
student so a year later my middle school
principal nominated me to go to a
program at Yale where I would learn how
to be a better leader I clearly needed
that right I was a bit of a coward so on
the first night of that session they
asked us to come up with a list of all
the problems that our world faced and I
thought man this is gonna be a breeze
the world faces so many problems child
poverty the lack of animals in
sub-saharan Africa global warming the
list could go on and on and I did I
wrote a list of maybe 50 problems that
the world faced and I felt so confident
that I had aced this assignment so the
next morning I walk into the session and
they say okay you have your list now
come up with the solution I was so mad I
picked the war in Afghanistan how does a
13 year old know how to solve the
conflict in Afghanistan well there was
one thing on my list that I felt really
passionate about and that was women’s
inequality I have been very privileged
to go to Hockaday since I was four years
old and I was taught there that I could
do anything I wanted if I put my mind to
but I knew that my peers didn’t always
get that same advice and so I did some
research and to show you the lack of
equality in leadership positions we’re
gonna play a little game so can I have
everyone in the room whose name is John
stand up okay
about four or five you can sit down now
thank you guys and now can I have all
the women in the room stand up okay a
little more right a little more than
four or five you guys can sit down now
thank you so the New York Times two
years ago did a study of the CEOs of the
15 hundred largest corporations in
America the S&P 1500 and they found that
there were more CEOs by the name of John
than all the women CEOs combined so I’m
sure you John’s are a very bright bunch
and deserve to be CEOs but if this
sample size is quite representative of
the nation there should be a few more
women CEOs than those by the name of
John and if that doesn’t scare you
enough about the lack of women in
leadership positions hopefully this will
so is anyone familiar with Elle magazine
a little bit okay so two years ago they
started campaign called more women to
show the lack of women in leadership
positions they took photos of high-level
conversations and they photoshopped the
men out of it so here is the German
Chancellor Angela Merkel at a cabinet
meeting seems pretty interesting to talk
to yourself right here are the leaders
of Europe here is this one’s quite
ironic this is Emma Watson you guys may
know her from Beauty and the Beast or my
Potter my Harry Potter fans may know her
as Hermione
here she is at the UN talking about
women’s rights yes that I did say that
women’s rights and she’s sitting there
by herself and here is the British House
of Commons which is our equivalent to
the US House of Representatives these
are the women these are the women who
serve in the British government the rest
of the room would be filled with men so
I was quite appalled by what I saw and
so how do you tackle this issue well I
was 13 I couldn’t eradicate all the
systemic behaviors that this that hurt
women in leadership positions instead I
thought I can inspire young girls to
enter fields that they never thought
were even open to them so I came back
from this program at Yale University and
I created a non-profit story power Inc I
got together a group of my friends and
we started raising money we went to
corporations like floor with mr.
Robinson we went to individual donors
and we asked for money and eventually we
raised over $10,000 to buy books about
and by inspiring women to donate to
middle school libraries across Texas and
so once we had raised that money and we
had donated these books well I’ve been
to a library I’m sure many of you have
and those books might sit in a far
corner just collecting dust so how do we
get these books to come to life we
decided to approach the head of D ist
middle school of di C libraries and ask
her can we run a program in your summer
schools I was 13 at the time and I am
very surprised to this day that she said
yes
we started in Thomas Edison middle
schools anyone here from Thomas Edison
no okay but the school so we worked with
the summer school students these are
students who had either failed two or
more classes or had problems with
truancy and each week we would pick a
different topic whether that was women
in stem or women in the arts and we
would read from these set of ten books
once we were done with our reading then
we would do activities to engage the
students in these fields when we did
women in military we learned about all
the military terms and the global
conflicts of the day we did women in
arts we had everyone draw portraits in
the style of Frida Kahlo and we hope
that we can inspire these students to go
out in person
these fields that they may have never
known were even available to them so
after that summer we were able to have
three more summer programs in the next
three years and I was really excited
about this but at the same time I heard
a lot of people say well you’re too
young you’re not qualified enough to
handle such a big topic this is women’s
inequality it faces 50% of the
population you’re 13 you don’t have a
solution and I’m not here to tell you
that I do I don’t have the solution
I’d probably don’t even have a solution
but what I’m here to tell you is that
it’s okay if you’re 10 or you’re 13 or
you’re 18 to participate in these
high-level discussions in fact you bring
something to the table that none of the
adults in the room do your age you know
what students are like you know that
they like snapchat and a few of them
have Facebook’s and you know what a
fidget spinner is right yeah okay so you
bring something to the table that the
adults who bring other things don’t and
that brings me to my next point
this year I had the great opportunity of
serving on the mayor’s Task Force on
Confederate monuments I was the youngest
member on the task force by several
decades and I was terrified to show up I
didn’t have a PhD or a law degree or any
knowledge of sculpture at all in fact
the only thing that I knew was how to
use snapchat and even that I’m pretty
bad at so I said why am I here no one
wants me to be talking here but I found
that the task force was so receptive to
what I had to say I brought something to
the table that none of the other people
with PhDs or law degrees did I brought
the knowledge of what students in Dallas
feel about these monuments and I would
like to say that I contributed a lot to
this task force I clearly didn’t do it
on my own I have a lot to thank my chair
miss waters who is here today and I’m
not just saying it because she’s sitting
in the audience but I also want to thank
the members of the task force for just
being so open and receptive to what the
youth in Dallas want to say and you all
have a very unique and important voice I
imagine you have great ideas and great
perspectives
some of the nation’s most complicated
topics and so I encourage you to take
your seat at the table it’s okay if
you’re scared you know when I walked
into the mayor’s task force I was
terrified just like I was when I was
walking into my eighth grade math
classroom but you have to realize that
you bring something so important and
that you just need to cast off your
fears and walk in the room so I
encourage you if you have an opinion if
you have an idea take a seat at the
table with the adults and make your
opinion known I promise you the world
will be better for it thank you
[Applause]
to a new school in a new city kind of a
raise of hands for everyone who’s in
seventh grade okay a lot of you so I was
terrified of moving to this new school I
had been at the same school for the last
eight years with the same friends we
played on the same soccer team and we’re
in the same Girl Scouts true it’s safe
to say I was not well equipped for
change so when my mom told me I had to
take a test to see what math class I
would be placed in I transferred all my
anxiety about starting at a new school
on to this one test
so like any mature eleven-year-old I
concocted a plan to get out of taking
the test every time I passed my mother I
would cough or make subtle comments
about how warm it felt inside even
though I had already turned up the air
conditioning I hope that over this
week’s time I could convince her that I
was way too sick to go and make take
this test so on the night before I was
supposed to take the test I knew I had
to go all in I came to her room and I
said mom I really want to take this test
but if I’m sick on the first day of
school because I pushed myself too hard
to take this test well then I’m gonna
start the year off on the wrong foot so
my mom who’s a very nice woman
capitulated and called the school and
rescheduled on the first day of my math
class the teacher went over all the
topics we would be covering that year
and one by one I realized I’d already
learned all this stuff to be completely
honest I was thrilled I was going to be
able to coast through seventh grade math
without ever having to study my parents
on the other hand a little less thrilled
and immediately my mom called the school
and scheduled another placement exam I
found out that I would be placed in the
eighth grade advanced algebra class and
I was terrified I hadn’t made any
friends yet at this new school and I
knew that if I was the one dork in the
8th grade math class the making friends
would get a little harder for me in the
upcoming weeks so on that day that I
moved into my new class I was shaking I
spent ten minutes outside the door of
that classroom walking back and forth
pacing just trying to convince myself to
take that step into the classroom
finally I realized I would have to enter
the room of venture
so I just went in immediately one of the
boys in the classroom stood up and
looked at me and goes are you lost I was
terrified I didn’t know what to say so I
just giggled and kind of looked at the
ground avoided eye contact he was not
satisfied with that response so he asked
me again are you sure your loss the
elementary schools in a different
building I was so sad sure I was five
four feet and a half tall
I weighed maybe 70 pounds I didn’t look
like your typical seventh grader but I
was not in elementary school I was so
offended I wish I could tell you that
this story ended with me wowing my
classmates earning their friendship
their respect and that that boy who made
fun of me is still my friend today but I
can the next week I moved out of the
state and I never looked back I’m not
here to tell you that that’s the way
that you should behave in fact I’m here
to tell you the opposite but I want you
to know that the people who stand on
this stage
we haven’t always been as confident as
we seem today we were the girl who ran
out of her math class crying after
someone called you an elementary school
student so a year later my middle school
principal nominated me to go to a
program at Yale where I would learn how
to be a better leader I clearly needed
that right I was a bit of a coward so on
the first night of that session they
asked us to come up with a list of all
the problems that our world faced and I
thought man this is gonna be a breeze
the world faces so many problems child
poverty the lack of animals in
sub-saharan Africa global warming the
list could go on and on and I did I
wrote a list of maybe 50 problems that
the world faced and I felt so confident
that I had aced this assignment so the
next morning I walk into the session and
they say okay you have your list now
come up with the solution I was so mad I
picked the war in Afghanistan how does a
13 year old know how to solve the
conflict in Afghanistan well there was
one thing on my list that I felt really
passionate about and that was women’s
inequality I have been very privileged
to go to Hockaday since I was four years
old and I was taught there that I could
do anything I wanted if I put my mind to
but I knew that my peers didn’t always
get that same advice and so I did some
research and to show you the lack of
equality in leadership positions we’re
gonna play a little game so can I have
everyone in the room whose name is John
stand up okay
about four or five you can sit down now
thank you guys and now can I have all
the women in the room stand up okay a
little more right a little more than
four or five you guys can sit down now
thank you so the New York Times two
years ago did a study of the CEOs of the
15 hundred largest corporations in
America the S&P 1500 and they found that
there were more CEOs by the name of John
than all the women CEOs combined so I’m
sure you John’s are a very bright bunch
and deserve to be CEOs but if this
sample size is quite representative of
the nation there should be a few more
women CEOs than those by the name of
John and if that doesn’t scare you
enough about the lack of women in
leadership positions hopefully this will
so is anyone familiar with Elle magazine
a little bit okay so two years ago they
started campaign called more women to
show the lack of women in leadership
positions they took photos of high-level
conversations and they photoshopped the
men out of it so here is the German
Chancellor Angela Merkel at a cabinet
meeting seems pretty interesting to talk
to yourself right here are the leaders
of Europe here is this one’s quite
ironic this is Emma Watson you guys may
know her from Beauty and the Beast or my
Potter my Harry Potter fans may know her
as Hermione
here she is at the UN talking about
women’s rights yes that I did say that
women’s rights and she’s sitting there
by herself and here is the British House
of Commons which is our equivalent to
the US House of Representatives these
are the women these are the women who
serve in the British government the rest
of the room would be filled with men so
I was quite appalled by what I saw and
so how do you tackle this issue well I
was 13 I couldn’t eradicate all the
systemic behaviors that this that hurt
women in leadership positions instead I
thought I can inspire young girls to
enter fields that they never thought
were even open to them so I came back
from this program at Yale University and
I created a non-profit story power Inc I
got together a group of my friends and
we started raising money we went to
corporations like floor with mr.
Robinson we went to individual donors
and we asked for money and eventually we
raised over $10,000 to buy books about
and by inspiring women to donate to
middle school libraries across Texas and
so once we had raised that money and we
had donated these books well I’ve been
to a library I’m sure many of you have
and those books might sit in a far
corner just collecting dust so how do we
get these books to come to life we
decided to approach the head of D ist
middle school of di C libraries and ask
her can we run a program in your summer
schools I was 13 at the time and I am
very surprised to this day that she said
yes
we started in Thomas Edison middle
schools anyone here from Thomas Edison
no okay but the school so we worked with
the summer school students these are
students who had either failed two or
more classes or had problems with
truancy and each week we would pick a
different topic whether that was women
in stem or women in the arts and we
would read from these set of ten books
once we were done with our reading then
we would do activities to engage the
students in these fields when we did
women in military we learned about all
the military terms and the global
conflicts of the day we did women in
arts we had everyone draw portraits in
the style of Frida Kahlo and we hope
that we can inspire these students to go
out in person
these fields that they may have never
known were even available to them so
after that summer we were able to have
three more summer programs in the next
three years and I was really excited
about this but at the same time I heard
a lot of people say well you’re too
young you’re not qualified enough to
handle such a big topic this is women’s
inequality it faces 50% of the
population you’re 13 you don’t have a
solution and I’m not here to tell you
that I do I don’t have the solution
I’d probably don’t even have a solution
but what I’m here to tell you is that
it’s okay if you’re 10 or you’re 13 or
you’re 18 to participate in these
high-level discussions in fact you bring
something to the table that none of the
adults in the room do your age you know
what students are like you know that
they like snapchat and a few of them
have Facebook’s and you know what a
fidget spinner is right yeah okay so you
bring something to the table that the
adults who bring other things don’t and
that brings me to my next point
this year I had the great opportunity of
serving on the mayor’s Task Force on
Confederate monuments I was the youngest
member on the task force by several
decades and I was terrified to show up I
didn’t have a PhD or a law degree or any
knowledge of sculpture at all in fact
the only thing that I knew was how to
use snapchat and even that I’m pretty
bad at so I said why am I here no one
wants me to be talking here but I found
that the task force was so receptive to
what I had to say I brought something to
the table that none of the other people
with PhDs or law degrees did I brought
the knowledge of what students in Dallas
feel about these monuments and I would
like to say that I contributed a lot to
this task force I clearly didn’t do it
on my own I have a lot to thank my chair
miss waters who is here today and I’m
not just saying it because she’s sitting
in the audience but I also want to thank
the members of the task force for just
being so open and receptive to what the
youth in Dallas want to say and you all
have a very unique and important voice I
imagine you have great ideas and great
perspectives
some of the nation’s most complicated
topics and so I encourage you to take
your seat at the table it’s okay if
you’re scared you know when I walked
into the mayor’s task force I was
terrified just like I was when I was
walking into my eighth grade math
classroom but you have to realize that
you bring something so important and
that you just need to cast off your
fears and walk in the room so I
encourage you if you have an opinion if
you have an idea take a seat at the
table with the adults and make your
opinion known I promise you the world
will be better for it thank you
[Applause]
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