8 Things Teen Girl Activists Want You To Know About Their Pandemic Life
The pandemic has definitely changed things for teenage girl activists. They're worried about new problems, they're facing bad attitudes – and they're experimenting with new quarantine lifestyles, including one teen's three-week "no-phone" detox. (Spoiler alert: She survived and thrived!)
NPR spoke to 11 girl activists during the (virtual) 2020 Girl Up Leadership Summit held last week. Established by the United Nations Foundation, Girl Up encourages young females to advocate for the health, safety and education of girls and women around the world.
For many of the teens, the pandemic has worsened the problems they are passionately fighting against. But that has only made them more determined to speak up. Here's what they had to say in a joint Zoom interview. (This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.)
The pre-pandemic style of activism doesn't always work.
Hayat Muse, 17, Minneapolis, Minnesota – Education equity activist
Muse is the cofounder of, a nonprofit that has offered free tutoring and mentoring for low-income students in Minneapolis for the last two years. Funded mainly by donations, the group has helped more than 200 students to date. But coronavirus shut down the free, in-person lessons, and online learning isn't an option since many of her regular students don't have access to computers or Wi-Fi, she says. "Kow iyo Labo" means '1 and 2' in Somali and stands for two things, Muse says: "Education equity begins very early on before kids are even learning their numbers and we, as a youth-led education movement, are just getting started!" The nonprofit has put a pause on tutoring until in-person lessons can resume.
