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Teen Voices’ TOP 10 Stories January – June 2016

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Teen Voices is pleased to announce the premiere of new installments of Seat at the Table, our series of video-recorded conversations between adult women and teen girl leaders.

Featuring

Dr. Danielle Sheypuk Psychologist, activist and runway model

Marie C. Wilson

Founder, The White House Project, Take Our Daughters to Work, Ms. Foundation

Dr. Musimbi Kanyaro President and CEO, Global Fund for Women

Stay tuned for more information on how you can pull up a chair and join Seat at the Table!

Follow us online!

2 | TEEN VOICES

@teenvoices • https://www.facebook.com/teenvoices www.womensenews.org/teenvoices (212) 244-1720

From the Editor

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very week my inbox sees new requests from teen girls wanting to share their stories with Teen Voices readers. The hard part is explaining that the first-person essays we publish come from our partners (read the powerful fruits of our relationships with Afghan Women’s Writing Project, page 12, and Jewish Women’s Archive, page 18). But it is easy to inspire them to share the stories, realities and experiences of their peers. Teen girls crave the legitimacy that being published in an award-winning news organization gives them. Our readers covet the insight and authentic voices our teen reporters capture. It’s a win-win for everyone!

As we prepare to reach the milestone of our 200th article, it’s amazing to see how Katina Paron, third from right, with Teen Voices Teen Voices thrives. We have more than 200 writers in 17 countries and on four continents. In this selection of our stories from the first half of 2016, you’ll read writers. some of our finest work from these writers. For some, this is the first paid piece of professional journalism they’ve ever done. The hours of reporting, mentoring and rewriting that went into each one is masked by each article’s authority and thoroughness. Whether the piece is looking into the needs of female teen athletes (page 4) or exploring the high rate of self-harm in black British girls (page 12), the perspective that Teen Voices provides is unmatched by any other news organization in the world. Not only that, our groundbreaking series Girl Fuse, an editorial initiative by, about and with girls with disabilities (page 16), is a breakthrough project for inclusivity.

But wait - there’s more! Later this year you’ll see fresh offerings from Seat at the Table, our salient video series that pairs notable adults and teens for a conversation about feminism, advocacy and leadership.

This is an exciting time for Teen Voices. We are thrilled that you are here with us.

Thanks for reading, Katina Paron Editor @katinaparon

From the Executive Director

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t’s not surprising that Teen Voices at Women’s eNews is now launching its first digital magazine. After all, as its new Executive Director, I spent over 30 years of my career in the magazine publishing field, and even started a few of my own. That is why I seized the opportunity to create a special edition of Teen Voices, and present it in a magazine format, as a way to highlight, as well as to condense, 10 of the most popular articles we have published so far this year.

With all of the content that passes before our eyes from numerous sources on a daily basis, it is too easy to overlook information that we may otherwise find valuable. We therefore see it as part of our role to reintroduce the articles that garnered the most attention so that you, our dedicated readers, are sure to not miss a thing, or even be reminded of a story that may have since been forgotten. But this is just the beginning. We look forward to providing you with a “Top 10” edition every six months, as well as creating other customized publications focusing on the most important issues affecting young girls.

We look forward to your coming along with us on this journey. Each publication is sure to be a real page-turner!

Lori Sokol, Ph.D. Executive Director Follow us online! @teenvoices | https://www.facebook.com/teenvoices | www.womensenews.org/teenvoices WOMEN’S ENEWS | 3

Female Teen Athletes Put Knee Safety on Coaches’ Shoulders By: Bethany Woodcock S. J. PYROTECHNIC ON FLICKR, UNDER CREATIVE COMMONS

WESTBOROUGH, Mass. (WOMENSENEWS)--Carly Flahive knew tear their ACLs. exactly when it happened.

“I heard a pop and struggled to put weight on my leg,” the

18-year-old said of her 2014 club soccer injury. “It took a few doctors before they realized it was torn even though I could tell something was wrong.”

Flahive, who spoke with Teen Voices by text, had injured her anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, and it wiped her out of the 2014 soccer and basketball seasons. When the Westborough High School student finally returned to the soccer field this past fall, she played hard, but was cautious.

Unlike Flahive, many girls cannot pinpoint the moment they 4 | TEEN VOICES

But Flahive has lots of company, as there are 80,000 female teens with ACL injuries every year. Teen girls are eight times more likely to tear their ACL than teen guys performing the same activity, according to Kids Health.

The injury involves soft tissue that runs diagonally across the center of the knee. Adolescent girls are more susceptible to it for reasons that range from hormones to anatomy. Recent research

by Kids Health finds the injury happens more among girls who play sports that involve jumping (basketball and volleyball) or sports where cutting and pivoting are more common (soccer and lacrosse).

Though girls’ elevated risks are widely known, some athletes At the same time, Carver said all of the ACL tears in female say their coaches are not doing enough to protect them. athletes at Westborough High School have occurred outside the Teen girls are eight times more likely to tear their ACL than school athletics setting. teen guys performing the same activity.

Mackenzie Lucas said more ACL strengthening could have SOCCER MISHAP prevented her from tearing the knee ligament during a 2014 Me- Taylor Powers of Westborough High School was 16 when she morial Day club soccer tournament in Westwood, Massachusetts. tore her ACL in 2014 during a recreational soccer game. “I col“From my experience in lided with another player and club and town soccer my whole didn’t realize it hurt so bad, so life, some [coaches] make time I played in the next game and “The higher the level the coach, the more prevention for training, some don’t,” the was running and my leg gave they do, but it still isn’t all that much.

Steps should be 15-year-old Holy Name High out on me,” she said over the School student from Worcestaken so that every coach knows a lot about the injury phone. She was carried off the ter, Massachusetts, said over field after the initial contact but and preventions.” the phone. “The higher the the next day her coach put her level the coach, the more prein the game, and that’s when vention they do, but it still isn’t it all happened. Powers doesn’t all that much. Steps should be taken so that every coach knows believe her coach was the main reason for her tear, but she said a lot about the injury and preventions.” her coach had never educated her team about the risks of this Lucas was out for one year, which is about average for reinjury and had not assigned prevention exercises. covery times, according to Kids Health.

Her team was part of the Westborough Youth Soccer Association, which according to Wayne Taylor, who formerly oversaw the ‘DEVASTATING’ INJURY girls’ program, has no standardized injury-prevention program.

“ACL injuries are devastating, they really are,” said Lucas. “Coach- Instead, volunteer coaches develop their own trainings. es of girls’ sports teams could be more involved with their players’ Taylor said he trains male and female athletes differently. In health because they know girls are more likely to tear their ACL. a dynamic warm up at the beginning of practice he has the girls It doesn’t even take that long to make such a significant difference add exercises involving hip flexors to the routine, which helps in their lives.” defend against ACL tears. Girls also form a circle to stretch their There are no statewide regulations when it comes to injury knees and hamstrings. prevention.

“While coaching, I never had a girl player blow out an ACL At Westborough High, Flahive’s school, each coach is allowed while playing for me,” the coach said in an email. He said the to design his or her own training program, based on the skills girls on his team had “significantly less injuries than other teams.” required and muscles used in the sport.

Paul Mumby, the girls’ varsity soccer coach at Westborough Sarah Carver, a certified athletic trainer who works with the High, uses a gender-neutral injury-prevention training called school in all sports, uses squats, lunges, quad/calf/hamstring Fifa 11+ in each of his practices but said that rest and downtime exercises and jumping/landing activities for the most effective are important forms of prevention as well. prevention in ACL tears. When players come to her with aches Last season Mumby’s two captains tore their ACLs, so he is and pains in the knee, this is what she finds to be the most ben- familiar with the situation. Both injuries occurred outside of the eficial for them. high school.

Even teen girls who receive proper training risk injury when “ACL injuries come a lot when the kids are tired and worn they participate in intense, year-round activities through school out,” Mumby said in a phone interview. “I make sure my practices or an outside club. “If you participate in the same sport 15 hours aren’t more than 90 minutes because it is just too much on their a week + all year round you have a 40 percent increased risk of growing bodies.” incurring a time loss injury,” Carver said in an email. She said she has noticed that many of the coaches in Westborough’s sports ABOUT BETHANY WOODCOCK leagues focus their practice time on fundamental skills, plays and Bethany Woodcock, 15, is a freshman at Westborough High School in Massachusetts, writes for her school newspaper, the Lobby Observer. scrimmages, without focusing on the biomechanics of movement.

WOMEN’S ENEWS | 5

Teens Say More LGBTQ+ Sex Ed Would be Really Helpful By: Natalia Young JULIE CHRISTINE ON FLICKR, UNDER CREATIVE COMMONS

PITTSBURGH (WOMENSENEWS)--Kimberly Gomez, 16, wants

to learn more about sex.

As a lesbian, she wants to know how to avoid sexually transmitted infections, or STIs, and figure out what is a safe environment for experimentation.

“Being young and inexperienced is hard enough,” Gomez said in an email interview from her home in Denton, Texas. “It’s frustrating not knowing what you’re doing, and while the freedom to experiment is liberating, it can also be scary and overwhelming.

6 | TEEN VOICES

Having some type of guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Queer sex ed needs to be added to conventional programs.”

While sex ed is a required part of the health curriculum in the public schools of 22 states and the District of Columbia, information specifically for LGBTQ youth is not mandated as part of the lesson plans.

However, issues normally stressed in conventional programs, including STIs and pregnancy, prove to be just as pressing for LGBTQ+ teens.

Pregnancy, for instance, can be a misunderstood and over-

looked issue for LGBTQ+ teens. The 2009 Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey found higher rates of lesbian identifying teens becoming pregnant than expected. When it came to queer students, 11 percent had been or had gotten someone pregnant, as opposed to 5 percent of other students.

“We presume that identity equals behavior,” said Carla Silva, director of the Health Outreach to Teens program at the Callen-Lorde Health Center in New York City. “Adolescence is a time to be really exploratory about many issues, including sexuality, [but lesbian teens] are not part of any dialogue that’s happening around sexual health.”

students have health classes that included positive representations of LGBT-related topics,” according to the statement.

INADEQUATE PROGRAMS

Anna Labick, 16, lives in Pittsburgh and said the health programs at her school are inadequate for queer teens such as herself. “It can be quite dangerous considering if one’s sexuality is ignored and no information is provided to help the teen practice safe sex (which is kind of the point of health class),” she said an email interview. “If health classes/educators talked about this openly, it would also create a safe space for kids who may not be able to talk about things like this at home.”

LOOKING ELSEWHERE In the absence of information at school, Labick relies on the In the absence of any formal instruction, teens often go looking online sex content created by the video-blogger, or “vlogger,” Laci online where, Silva said, information is not always reliable.

Green, a public sex educator.

LGBTQ+ teens are more This lack of information can likely to have started having put lesbian teens in danger of sex at an early age and to have making poor decisions and at a multiple partners compared “As a queer teen, you have to worry about so much greater risk for associating sex to their heterosexual peers more. If you or the person you’re experimenting with with shame, said Silva of the and less likely to use contraCallen-Lorde Health Center. isn’t out to their family yet, experimenting becomes ception during intercourse, For Gomez, it’s a safety isso much scarier.

You never know how parents will therefore being placed at risk sue. “The biggest risk when of unexpected teen pregnancy, react to walking in on their children with someone of experimenting is the fear of according to a data analysis by someone walking in on you; the same gender.” advocacy groups. having someone who doesn’t Without queer sexual edknow about you find out like ucation classes at school, that is terrifying,” she said.

LGBTQ+ teens can find themselves ill-equipped to deal with “There is so much violence against the LGBT+ community, you’re these situations. As a result, LGBTQ+ youth are experiencing constantly worrying if you’re safe enough.” issues that make them more likely to have sex and experience She said online information was key in helping her underissues like dating violence, STDs and unexpected pregnancy. stand she could get an STI or HIV through vaginal sex. “It wasn’t “As a queer teen, you have to worry about so much more,” said something we learned in school,” Gomez said.

Gomez. “If you or the person you’re experimenting with isn’t out Some states are taking action to prepare queer teens for healthto their family yet, experimenting becomes so much scarier. You ier sex lives. While California’s schools are not required to teach never know how parents will react to walking in on their children comprehensive sex education, 96 percent of them do and must with someone of the same gender.” follow a specific set of laws regarding content and parental conSixty-one organizations recently came out in support of com- sent. prehensive sex education, according to a press statement from Six other states, including Texas, Arizona, Hawaii, Massaone of those organizations, the Sexual Information and Education chusetts, New York and Ohio, are making greater efforts toward Council of the U.S. Other groups include the Human Rights inclusive sex education. Four states - Arizona, Hawaii, California Campaign and Planned Parenthood. and Ohio - have addressed gender identity in their efforts.

The statement, “A Call to Action: LGBTQ Youth Need Inclusive Sex Education,” says only 19 percent of U.S. secondary ABOUT NATALIA YOUNG schools provide curricula or supplementary sex education mate- Natalia Young, 17, goes to Bethel Park High School in the Greater Pittsrials that are LGBTQ-inclusive. “Fewer than 5 percent of LGBT burgh Area. She has been published in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

WOMEN’S ENEWS | 7

Girl Journalists at Forefront of School Censorship By: Elysse Vernon DUNCAN C ON FLICKR, UNDER CREATIVE COMMONS

LONGWOOD, Fla. (WOMENSENEWS) — Grace Marion is disgusted

by the 10-day prior review policy of her school paper The Playwickian.

The policy, determined by the district school board of Langhorne, Pennsylvania, and in line with federal rulings, allows the principal to cut any work he or she “reasonably believes should be prohibited.”

This can prevent Playwickian staffers such as Marion, the paper’s entertainment and multimedia editor, from breaking news about teen pregnancy or even talking about their mascot in its opinion pages.

“These policies affect every inch of our production process,” Marion said in an email interview. “Looking to gain more experience in journalism, and not being able to report on events immediately as they happen as a result of our 10-day prior review, I have often been driven to write for other publications, as have one or two other editors. I want to be a journalist for the rest of my 8 | TEEN VOICES

life, but not the kind that always has to have an out-of-date story.”

The prior review policy was set in 2014 after student editors stirred controversy for trying to either ban Redskins, the name of the school mascot, from the paper or treat the term as a slur.

Marion still works for the paper, but said she gets more real world experience through freelance work, including Teen Voices.

While administrative oversight is federally sanctioned on school papers, it’s a contentious issue for journalism educators and it affects female students disproportionately. Fifty-nine percent of students participating in extracurricular journalism programs are female, according to the Student Press Law Center. And the numbers may be even higher, according to a soon-to-be released study from the University of Kansas.

ACTIVE VOICE

This fall the Washington-based Student Press Law Center, which provides legal support and guidance on First Amendment freedom

of expression concerns, launched a campaign called Active Voice In fact, an analysis of female reporters and presenters worldwide to help female student journalists contend with censorship in their in the last four Global Media Monitoring undertakings — in 2000, newspapers or news sites.

2005, 2010 and 2015 — finds North America the only region in the “Young women are overwhelmingly the ones wanting to push world with a decrease (minus 8 percent) in the number of women the envelope in raising important social issues for discussion in delivering news. student media, and they are the ones absorbing the brunt of school When women do have a bigger role in newsrooms, Marion said, retaliation merely for trying to educate the community about is- it is often in front of the camera in short skirts. sues of public concern,” Frank LoMonte, executive director of the By not having the freedom to properly lead her staff, Marion feels Student Press Law Center, said in an email interview. she is losing out on the opportunity to become skilled in her craft.

LoMonte said the Active Voice campaign grew out of a string of “What it is doing is taking away the freedom of many adolescases during 2014 involving young women and school censorship cents to speak out,” she said. “I won’t pretend that teenage journalcases that were especially severe and ill-founded. ists are always logical and professional, or journalists of any age for “At times we encounter situations that fall into a gray judg- that matter, but it should be in their hands to mess up and print ment-call area, but these were not ‘gray’ cases at all,” said LoMonte. something poorly written, if they are going to do it. The thought “They were cases of schools losing sight of their educational mission of prior review definitely limits my own ability to write.” and using their censorship auCombined with the male thority for the purpose of beatdominance of the professional ing down these young women to “Right now, way too many young people — and again, landscape, she said this could ‘show them who’s boss.’” they’re overwhelmingly young women — go to school hinder her ability to get ahead.

The Active Voice program “If the second guessing in fear of being punished just for speaking their minds urges young women to find that comes with prior review about an issue of public concern and importance.” support in online communities becomes a habit, many young and educational partnerships. journalists will face struggles if This includes connecting with they peruse a career in journalStudent Press Law Center college students who will create service ism as a result of it,” Marion said. “They will be afraid to cover hard learning projects to address the underlying cause of administra- hitting stories.” tive push back. Teaching high school and college students to be Marion sees a danger of girls developing a habit of unintentionadvocates of a free press on a local and state level is the leverage the ally self-censoring their work. “When you’re picking out something press law center is hoping will strengthen girls’ leadership ability to cover you’re always worried that it will be too inappropriate, that on a personal and national level. By bringing their stories to Active it will be censored and it will have been a waste of time. I think.”

Voice, girls in turn help the program influence public policy and LoMonte, at the Student Press Law Center, expects the impact address the direct concerns of the silenced voices. of Active Voice to become apparent in the next school year after “These programs can set a precedent for future generations of they hire the first class of college student fellows, for which they empowered journalists, specifically female empowered journalists, are currently looking into grant funding. by eliminating the taboo around engaging topics,” said Jillian ReaIn the meantime, LoMonte will be presenting with Peter Bobvis, a junior in Manitou Springs, Colorado, and editor in chief of kowski from the University of Kansas at SXSWedu on the gender her school paper, The Prospector, in an email interview. gap in high school journalism participation and censorship.

“So many journalists, especially females, are afraid to write “Right now, way too many young people — and again, they’re about topical issues within education, for the backlash that will overwhelmingly young women — go to school in fear of being inevitably come back to them [in the press or in public]. When I punished just for speaking their minds about an issue of public heard that our principal asked us to take down a photo from our concern and importance,” said LoMonte. “That fear deters them website because the girl was out of dress code, our photography ed- from bringing the community important information and insights. itor and I scheduled a meeting with the principal and immediately If we change that mindset and make schools into supportive and re-posted the picture. This spun into a month-long conversation open-minded places where all voices are respected and valued, we between an SPLC spokesperson, my principal and me. It ended send young women out into the adult world equipped with the up that he understood our rights as journalists, and he doesn’t try confidence to take on leadership roles in law, business, government to get involved anymore.” and media.”

STILL SCARCE

While girls may be taking the lead in student newsrooms, they are still scarce in professional newsrooms.

ABOUT ELYSSE VERNON

Elysse Vernon is a senior at Lake Brantley High School in Altamonte Springs, Fla. She is an editor of her school’s newspaper as well as a captain of the dance team.

WOMEN’S ENEWS | 9

Girls of Color Reflect on Different Ways They Chose a College By: Melody Magly US DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION ON FLICKR, UNDER CREATIVE COMMONS

Former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan poses with students at Spelman College.

ENGLEWOOD, N.J. (WOMENSENEWS)— Early in her freshman at a historically black college or university, or HBCU. year at the University of Michigan, Allie Brown faced an issue she had tried to avoid by choosing a college that didn’t factor race into its application process.

She was sitting with another student when he made a comment about Brown receiving a scholarship to the school only because she was black.

“It really hurt me because I had specifically chosen University of Michigan to avoid this kind of thing,” Brown said over the phone from her Ann Arbor dorm room.

Brown, who is studying in the university’s Ford School of Public Policy, knows this type of thing wouldn’t have happened

10 | TEEN VOICES

She heard all about the benefits of HBCU from representatives who visited her old high school in Millersville, Maryland. Her parents, on the other hand, gave her the hard sell on primarily white institutions, or PWIs, especially since her mother graduated from Princeton and her father from Tufts.

She went with the University of Michigan because it hasn’t had a race-based application process since 2006. That attracted her because she felt at other schools, “a lot of black women’s acceptances are contingent on needs of diversity. I found it condescending to live in an environment like that.”

Brown joins the vast majority of black students who decide to

attend a PWI. While enrollment has been rising at the country’s over 100 HBCUs, only 8 percent of college-bound black students choose an HBCU, according to a 2011 National Center of Education Statistics study, the most recent data available.

UNWELCOMED PRESSURE

month,” she said. “But by day one at Howard I’ve been learning about black people I didn’t even know existed. You’re not only learning about African Americans but your African descent.”

Her only regret is that she applied to just one HBCU. “I think I should’ve applied to all of them. Every HBCU has its own style but they’re all really fun.”

Brown said she felt a lot of pressure to attend HBCUs from guidance counselors at her school, which was 52 percent black and 30 SELF-CONFIDENCE BOOST percent white. “It was like you can go to HBCU or go to the army.” Marybeth Gasman, director of the Penn Center for Minority She didn’t like the pressure. “A lot of people see HBCUs as the Serving Institutions at the University of Pennsylvania, recentbest black people can do,” Brown said. ly published a study on “The Changing Face of HBCUs.” She Guidance counselors who promote HBCUs have their reasons. found that HBCU campuses like Coppin State University have Black students who attend HBCUs are more likely than black stu- as much as 76 percent female enrollment compared to that of dents from PWI to be financially thriving after college, 40 percent other HBCU institutions like Saint Paul’s College, at 50 percent compared to 29 percent, according to a 2015 Gallup study. Black female enrollment.

HBCU students also thrive socially and have a higher well-being “There’s a significant amount of self-confidence given to black post-university. women surrounded by other Elise Freeman, a freshman intelligent and ambitious black Woodrow Wilson School of “There’s a significant amount of self-confidence given women,” said Gasman.

Public Policy major at PrinceWomen account for 60 perto black women surrounded by other intelligent and ton University, did not apply to cent of the total HBCU student ambitious black women.” an HBCU in the class of 2015 population, according to the Coming from Englewood, National Center of Education New Jersey, where the populaStatistics study. tion is 45 percent white, 32 percent black and 27 percent Latino, Gasman concludes in her report that the gender disparity at Freeman was looking for something similar to where she grew up. HBCUs occurs due to the larger issue of black men not having “I wanted a large pool of cultures from which I could learn the drive to apply. The number of women attending HBCUs comand that’s why I didn’t choose an HBCU,” she said. pared to men has seen only a minor change in the past 60 years.

Princeton, initially, turned her off for the same reason since The reason that black girls choose PWIs more frequently than the Ivy League school’s student population is only 7 percent Af- HBCUs is a sign of the times, Gasman said. “As integration has rican American. But she changed her mind after attending a progressed, more and more black students have chosen to attend diversity open house. majority institutions,” she said in an email interview.

“I talked to a bunch of different people of color, people of Olabimpe Amokomowo, a senior at Old Mill High School in different socioeconomic backgrounds and I realized how diverse Millersville, Maryland, is currently in the process of deciding the student population truly was,” she said in a phone interview. which school to attend this fall. Amokomowo applied to schools But historically black universities are also attracting a growing that had the best of both worlds - African American unity and a number of students and young women in particular. strong alumni network Legacy was Tatiana Garrison’s reason for initially discounting “When applying to schools, I specifically looked for black or Howard University, located in Washington, D.C. Caribbean student unions on campus,” she said over the phone.

“At first I didn’t really want to go there ‘cause my parents went “I just wanna know that even if I am at a PWI, I wanna know there and my grandparents went there and I wanted to start my that there is a safe space.” own legacy,” the native of Englewood said in a phone interview.

“But then I went to an open house and visited the campus and ABOUT MELODY MAGLY Melody Magly is a writer from Englewood, NJ. She plans on studying I fell in love. After those experiences I knew I belonged there.”

Garrison, a biology major, was impressed by the amount of political communications and Spanish at George Washington University in the fall and hopes to use communication and policy to create social change black pride she felt at the school. Before college, “the only thing in America. you really learn about regarding black people is in black history

WOMEN’S ENEWS | 11

Black British Girls Most Likely to Self Harm, Least Likely to Receive Help By: Sharon Igbokwe JOSEBA BARRENETXEA ON FLICKR, UNDER CREATIVE COMMONS

BERKSHIRE, England (WOMENSENEWS)—Olivia isn’t white, into

“emo” music or shy. This is part of the reason it took her so long to come clean to her parents about the scars on her arm: girls like her didn’t fit the self-harmer stereotype in her head.

“There is also a stereotype that it only affects a few, weak people,” she said during an interview with Teen Voices over a selfharmUK online forum. “But that’s not always true.”

The 17-year-old black Londoner developed depression, which led her to cutting her arms. She stopped cutting in the middle of 2015, after her parents helped her find therapy to treat her

12 | TEEN VOICES

depression.

She prefers to keep her identity private by taking the pseudonym of Olivia Pope, the black protagonist of the TV show “Scandal.”

At the same time, she insists that self-harm needs to become a more public conversation.

“We need to address situations like mine, to make people know mental health is incredibly, extremely important and has got to be discussed,” she said.

DISCRIMINATION AND DEPRESSION

It also backs up findings from a 2011 Care Quality Commission study, which found that people from black communities generally have a worse experience of the mental health system than their white counterparts. At the time, Dame Jo Williams, chairperson of the study, called for greater attention to such factors as socio-economic disadvantages and whether patients were being referred from the criminal justice system.

In the United Kingdom 3 in 4 girls between the ages of 11 and 21 say that self-harming is their generation’s biggest health issue, according to a 2015 study by GirlGuiding.

Self-harming, which can involve cutting, burning and hitting oneself, is often a sign of depression, anxiety or suicidal intent.

The effects of these mental illnesses can be amplified for those in marginalized communities, where there is a strong connection LESS ACCESS TO CARE between race-based discrimination and mental illness.

Ninety three percent of black and ethnic minorities with men- Fifty percent of black Britons live in low-income families, accordtal illnesses have experienced discrimination, yet 80 percent feel ing to a 2010 finding by Poverty.org.uk. Common deprivations, unable to speak about these experiences, according to Time to such as poor nutrition and fewer chances at a high-quality education, link said-poverty to mental illness.

Change, a charity based in London.

Cal Strode of the Mental Health Foundation, which is based Part of that may be explained by the scarcity of groups in the in London and provides services throughout England, ScotU.K. that are addressing the unique mental health needs of black land, Wales and North Ireland, Britons. agrees it is harder for black African Caribbean Mental girls and women to navigate Health Services, a 24-year-old “The result is that women of black ethnic backgrounds the system of mental healthcharity which purposely locatcare. “The result is that women do not receive the support and interventions needed, ed itself in an impoverished of black ethnic backgrounds do section of Manchester, is one which impacts BME (black and minority ethnic) not receive the support and inof the few. It runs a women’s women’s wellbeing.” terventions needed, which imgroup and a group aimed at pacts BME (black and minoriteens. Black & Asian Therapist ty ethnic) women’s wellbeing,” Network, an online network she said in an email interview. with nation-wide services, is the U.K.’s biggest independent orThe foundation acknowledges that the healthcare system ganization that connects blacks and Asians to culturally sensitive could be improved in this area. “Services are not culturally aware care providers.

A newcomer is Recovr, a site that has announced plans to enough and BME communities hesitate to access services due to launch in June and aims to “help young black adults find black stigma,” Strode wrote.

Additionally, discrimination—especially the intersections of therapists and counsellors who relate to their experiences.”

Mental health authorities consistently point out that self-harm- racism, sexism and colorism—can trigger mental health issues in black teenage girls and women. “On the whole, our research tells ers are from all kinds of backgrounds and ethnicities.

However, a 2010 paper published in the British Journal of us that black women are more exposed to harmful experiences Psychiatry found that black girls are more likely to self-harm than and stressors than non-BME women,” Strode said.

However, Strode says there is still not enough research on why any other group surveyed in the emergency rooms of three big U.K. cities. In Manchester, for instance, rate for self-harm among black females are having mental health problems more commonly black women was 10.3 per 1,000 compared to 6.6 per 1,000 for and receiving less mental healthcare.

That leaves many girls in the situation that Olivia used to find white people as a whole. Authors also found black British girls herself: feeling alone and inclined to blame herself. “As a black the least likely to receive assessment or specialist care.

Young black women “may not communicate their distress to girl,” she said, “I just felt like I was letting down, I don’t know, clinical staff as much, and be less likely to admit to depression,” MLK or Rosa Parks or my immigrant parents; people who have done everything for me to live a better life and be strong - not writes Dr. Jayne Cooper, the lead author of the report.

In the study, Cooper also found that black and minority eth- to wallow in self-pity!” nic groups “may find themselves disillusioned with the services they receive, and so be reluctant to return to hospital if they self-harm again.”

Cooper’s research was followed by a 2013 MIND report that found that people of color said staff weren’t diverse enough.

ABOUT SHARON IGBOKWE

The founder and writer of WisdomTooth, a blog for teenage girls, Sharon Igbokwe is an African American British feminist, budding writer, actress and ninja warrior.

WOMEN’S ENEWS | 13

From Three Blocks to Three Miles: Afghan Teen’s Journey to School By: Arifa From our partner Afghan Women’s Writing Project GLOBALPARTNERSHIP FOR EDUCATION ON FLICKR, UNDER CREATIVE COMMONS

(WOMENSENEWS)—Last December, my family held a gradua- into my eyes as if she was telling the world’s biggest secret, “I was tion party for me and my siblings. Alia and I had graduated high school and my elder sister, Gullafroz, and my elder brother, Arif, graduated from university.

At the end of the party, as I was serving tea to everyone, my auntie called me to talk. She began, “Look you are graduated now, for example, you learned everything and you are smart now.” She said “for example” to make fun of me. Every time my auntie came to our home, she always said school was not a good option and advised my sisters and me to get married rather than go to school.

I was searching for my sisters from the corner of my eye; they were at a side of the room talking to each other. They smiled back and rolled their eyes—meaning they had already heard the lecture.

“When I was your age,” she said, coming close to look straight 14 | TEEN VOICES

married and had a child. My in-laws were so happy to have me as their son’s bride. You have to marry soon because you are young and quick. I was young once too, and I could finish my house chores faster than anyone else.”

I said to myself, “I can do math faster than those house chores.”

She continued talking about her early life. But I was not listening. My mind was on a memory from Kandahar.

After I finished third grade at school in Kabul, my father found a job in Kandahar and the whole family had to move there. It was mid-December when we arrived. We had to live in a small apartment with two tiny square rooms and a square yard. A tiny bathroom was on one side and it shared a wall with the kitchen, which only had room for one person to cook while standing.

There was a girls’ school about three blocks away from our

home, which my sisters and I attended. I really liked my school. I uniform and carry my pink umbrella above my head. wore a long black dress down to my knees and black pants that I Khala sat down beside me and wiped my tears. “You want to pulled high so that my ankles could be seen. My ankles were whiter go to school? Then go,” she said. “Why you are crying? Your tears than those of the Pashtun girls I saw. I really wanted them to see my won’t change anything. Remember your dreams won’t come to ankles. I thought they would be jealous of my white feet; instead you; you have to walk to them. And to walk to your dreams you they looked at us as if looking at something dirty. And of course, need feet and eyes. If your faith in going to school is still strong, we had to wear the white headscarves. Gulafroz was covered in then nothing on earth can prevent you from going.” black from head to toe since she was older. I ironed my uniform Then Khala suggested I attend a school that was three miles every night before going to sleep and polished my black sandals. away from the hospital, about a two-hour walk from our home.

One summer morning, I got dressed and took my pink um- After three days of begging, my father finally agreed to let us go. brella to shield my head from the sun although it was only 6:30 After six weeks of no school, we began walking to our new school. a.m. and the sun had not risen yet. When my sisters and I arrived We had to walk about three to four hours to get to school and in front of the school gate, there were two men standing there. home again. It was a very long way but it was fun for us. So we They looked like tall, long birds would not get lost we rememwith wide eyes. To see them, I bered the shops along the way: had to raise my head high and “Today I am happy that I have continued school and a music store that played Inmove my umbrella to the side. dian classic music, a vegetable finished high school.”

They were frowning. store with all my favorite fruits, One of them asked, “Ala mosque painted white with a mond-eyed people, where are door we always kissed as our you going?” The other one spoke in a Pashto accent. I could not mother told us to do and finally, a bookstore. I liked to stand understand all the things he said, but I understood this: “Go outside this bookstore to look at the books they put out on display. back. School is closed. Go back home. Never again, no female I recognized that bad won over good when two men pointed school.” The two men exchanged some words in Pashtu and then their guns to my father’s forehead and shouted to him to get out burst out laughing. of Kandahar because he worked with foreigners. I do not blame One of the men was dressed in a dark brown parahan tumban, those men. If we put pens and pencils in empty hands of men and the traditional dress for men. He had dark eyes, a steadfast gaze make them busy with writing about the beauty of their life, then and thick eyebrows. He looked down at me and frowned so that murderers and enemies of peace won’t have the chance to put his thick eyebrows almost came together. guns in their hands and teach them to point their guns toward us.

He shrieked at me, “I said go home, stupid Hazaras!”

Today I am happy that I have continued school and finished “I want to go to my school,” I said. high school. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if They stepped forward and pushed the three of us to the we had not returned to school, although the answer is simple: we ground. Our black uniforms filled with dust. They shouted and would believe all the things our auntie said to us. Gulafroz would told us to go home and never come back again. get married, then me and then Alia. We would miss the future we We were scared and ran back home. Two weeks passed but dreamed of. We would not work in the office we dreamed about. still the school was locked. My sisters and I were so depressed I would never get the house with the library in it that I want. I being at home that my father started taking us with him to the would miss the woman I wanted to become. hospital where he was working twice a week.

One day it was too hot to play outside so I sat in the waiting ABOUT ARIFA room observing the patients and the doctors doing their work. Arifa is a teen writer with the Afghan Women’s Writing Project.

A Korean doctor entered the room. She wore a white coat and she looked fascinating to me. For a moment, I saw myself instead ABOUT AFGHAN WOMEN’S WRITING PROJECT The Afghan Women’s Writing Project was founded in 2009 in defense of the of that woman. The desire to be proud of myself and make my human right to voice one’s story. Online writing workshops partner interfather proud of me rushed into my heart and cut it so deep that national writers, educators, and journalists with English-speaking women in six Afghan provinces. Poems and essays are published each week at I had to leave the room.

I sat outside in the harsh sunlight and cried. There was some- awwproject.org where over 1300 pieces by Afghan women can now be read.

In support of this central focus, AWWP’s program also includes a womthing I was longing for and it was hurting me. A woman, Khala en-only internet café in Kabul, training workshops, online Dari workshops, Majan, who was cleaning the hospital, came to me. She asked, radio broadcasts of AWWP writings in Afghanistan, laptops, internet, and publication opportunities. AWWP believes that empowering Afghan women “What on earth caused my child to cry this innocently?”

“I want to go to school.” I said. When I said this out loud I creates possibilities for economic independence and instills leadership abilities as in reinforces freedom of speech. Follow the organization on Twitter , realized all I wanted was to be able to return to school in my black Facebook or email.

WOMEN’S ENEWS | 15

Teen Calls Out ‘Me Before You’ Movie as Offensive, Belittling By: Sylvia Colt-Lacayo COURTESY OF NEW LINE CINEMA AND METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER

The film “Me Before You,” based on a book by Jojo Moyes.

(WOMENSENEWS)—The movie “Me Before You” is a sensitive and controversial topic in the disabled community. Based on the book by Jojo Moyes, the story follows a unique, flamboyant girl, Louisa, and her journey as a caregiver for an intelligent, attractive quadriplegic, Will. The two fall in love after Will’s injury, and then struggle to come to terms with Will’s plans, spawned by his disability, to commit suicide. Spoiler alert: Will dies through assisted suicide with Louisa’s support.

While I commend the movie industry for putting the spotlight on people living with a disability, it grossly misrepresents our lives as a whole.

I have Bethlem myopathy, a progressive neuromuscular disease that has caused me to be bound to a wheelchair since fourth grade.

There will never be a day in my life when I do not need 24 hour care. However, I have never wanted to end my life. I rely on my family for changing, bathing and eating. While I do feel helpless at times and have had many days where I feel furious with my body for all the things I can’t do, I have spent even more time loving my full and joyful life.

Even as this past year has been one of my most painful as I have struggled to come to terms with my lack of independence, this does not mean in any way that I feel there is no reason for me to live. For the past year I have been on antidepressants and suffered from social anxiety, mostly because I am so different from my peers. Although my therapist assures me this is not unusual for my age group, I am sure it has been compounded by my disease.

16 | TEEN VOICES

CLUELESS INTERPRETATION

In the movie, Will’s love for Louisa saves him from depression but he still goes through with assisted suicide because, even though he knows they can be happy together, he doesn’t want to be happy without a full range of motion. He also believes he would in some way be “trapping her” and be a “burden” on her forever. If this depiction by Hollywood is accurate, then I too should kill myself because of all the responsibility I am to care for.

The message this movie sends to other teen girls with disabilities is negative and untrue on many levels. Are we to wait for romantic love to save us from the miserable lives that Moyes assumes we have? Are we to play nice for our helpers, like Will did with Louisa, in the hopes that they can uncover our true happiness? In a world that preys on girls’ desires to be loved and accepted, this movie goes too far. One can even say it encourages teen girls with disabilities to feel less than their partners and, therefore, feel secondary to their partners’ needs and wants. The takeaway message here is that our lives are worthless.

Another striking and absurd part of this movie is that able-bodied actors were used to portray a disabled person. Hollywood did what it always does and lost an opportunity to provide a disabled actor work. It’s not like there is nowhere to go to find actors who could part authentically. It is very rare to see a disabled person in film, and on this unique occasion, where a character is specifically written to be disabled, it’s nonsensical that they couldn’t even cast one of us.

Not only is it disrespectful for an abled-bodied person to play a disabled person, it is cultural appropriation. Crip culture - the culture of the badass disabled - is beautiful and sacred to those who are truly differently abled. For the filmmakers to place a random abled-bodied person who doesn’t know the first thing about living with a disability in a wheelchair and call him disabled is offensive. Crip culture should be valued and respected like all other cultures should.

ABOUT SYLVIA COLT-LACAYO

Sylvia Colt-Lacayo is an outgoing activist for the disability rights movement.

She is passionate about about the undersexualization of the disabled along with their underrepresentation in media and politics.

In India, Schoolgirls Look Forward to Self-Defense Classes By: Veda M. and Sakuntala Narasimhan MATSOGRAPHY ON FLICKR, UNDER CREATIVE COMMONS

BENGALURU, India (WOMENSENEWS)--In response to growing

national attention to the problem of rape in India, the government issued a directive this past fall strongly encouraging all public and private schools to train female students in self-defense.

Sweshika K., 14, a ninth grader in North Bengaluru, says the training will help her escape attackers in a place where the threat of an attack has been growing. “All girls in our country must learn self-defense,” she says.

In interviews, five other girls who also live in south India and have some experience with self-defense training agreed.

In Sweshika’s hometown of Karnataka, rape cases doubled from 2009 to 2014, according to Home Minister K.J George’s statement in the state assembly. Nationwide, more than 3,000 rape cases are reported each year, but accurate numbers are hard to get because not all cases are reported to the police.

The trainings recommended by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) have attracted some criticism for putting the onus on potential victims.

“I believe . . . society should make the place safe for girls,” one reader said in the online comments section of a news story in The Hindu about the directive. “The boys, future men of the society, need to be educated to respect girls, the future women of the society.”

Goda Ram is a teacher in south India. “Of course, the CBSE directive does not go far enough,” she said in a phone interview. “It will not ensure that rapes do not occur, but it is one step, to begin with. Sensitizing boys is a larger issue, which is beyond the purview of this directive. That would be a wider, socio-cultural issue that will take time to show results.”

WIDE BENEFITS

Many schools in Bengaluru had been teaching self-defense for girls even before the national directive.

Martial arts expert Esther Cecelia Butta, who has a third-degree black belt and teaches self-defense in local schools, said this type of training provides more than physical techniques and that it benefits both girls and boys.

“Both boys and girls should learn karate, martial arts or taekwondo because when they learn it, they acquire self-confidence, self-control, become strong, give respect and show courtesy,” she said in a phone interview. “Hence, boys won’t misbehave with girls,” Proponents say the training has other benefits for girls. “Teaching girls to defend themselves would be useful means to empower them,” an official with the national Central Board of Secondary Education said in a press statement. “The training will not only assist these students in becoming aware of their surroundings, but increase their self-confidence and sense of safety in difficult circumstances.”

One young woman, however, said that danger can lurk even in a class where she is supposed to be studying her own safety. Varshini Rao, 18, told Teen Voices at Women’s eNews that when she was learning self-defense at an afterschool center the male instructor touched her in an inappropriate manner as the class was leaving.

She was too embarrassed to tell an adult about the incident.

Yugandhar M., 15, and Vaishnavi, 14, both said the self-defense classes are a start but that boys should also be taught to treat girls as equals.

“Boys should be sensitized to give all females respect,” Vaishnavi said.

Concern about rape in India hit the national and international radar in 2012 when a 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist was brutally raped by a public bus driver and his friends in Delhi. She died in the hospital from injuries and infection caused by an iron rod inserted into her vagina by one of the attackers. Indian law does not allow rape victims to be named in the press so the victim was called “Nirbhaya,” which means “fearless.”

In 2014 documentary maker Leslee Udwin drew more attention to the problem with her film “Daughters of India,” which is based on the infamous Nirbhaya rape.

ABOUT VEDA M.

Veda. M is in 9th grade at Poorna Learning Centre in Bengaluru, India.

ABOUT SAKUNTALA NARASIMHAN

Sakuntala Narasimhan is a national award-winning Indian columnist, author and academic resource person specializing in gender.

WOMEN’S ENEWS | 17

Sex Harassment and Teens: Title IX Moving Into High Schools By: Sammy Norrito NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LAB ON FLICKR, UNDER CREATIVE COMMONS

NEW YORK (WOMENSENEWS)—Soon after having an honest

conversation about sex with a male friend of hers last year, she started hearing him whispering “dirty slut” or “I know you want it” to her in math class.

This year another male friend repeatedly tried to touch her armpit hair and asked if her boyfriend licked it.

The 17-year-old New York City student said she felt very uncomfortable during these encounters but didn’t tell her teachers because she wasn’t sure if it was a big deal and she was worried that it would ruin her friendships. While she is a leader of her school’s “women’s empowerment” class, she asked not to be named to protect her online privacy.

18 | TEEN VOICES

Situations like this are what Know Your IX, based in Washington, D.C., and New York City, is trying to address by taking its advocacy and awareness campaign into high schools.

Launched in 2013 to publicize gender-based discrimination law on college campuses, the organization is now seeking to make sure teens know about the law, which in addition to protecting gender equity in team sports opportunities also guarantees them a learning environment safe from assault and harassment.

As instances of campus rape at high schools and in college dominate the headlines, the documentary “The Hunting Ground” and artists such as Lady Gaga and Kesha are hoping to de-stigmatize the issue.

But student advocates, not celebrities or media projects, are

best positioned to address the issue, says Zoe Ridolfi-Starr, deputy director of the Know Your IX Campaign.

Teens are also among those most likely to be victimized. Data from the Department of Justice show that females ages 15 to 18 had a rate of rape and sexual assault more than double that of females of all other ages, from 2005-2014.

LACK OF NOTIFICATIONS

Under federal law, schools are required to ensure that victims of gender-based discrimination can “continue to learn,” says Ridolfi-Starr. A student’s attacker or abuser must be removed from class so that the victim no longer feels threatened.

However, school officials need to be notified when a violation occurs and in many cases they are not.

COMING FORWARD “I’ve fortunately never received a Title IX complaint like that, The core of the KYIX campaign focuses on training victims of but I would have to follow the code of the Department of Educaschool-based sexual harassment to “use their own experiences to tion,” says Dimitri Saliani, principal of Eleanor Roosevelt High encourage other survivors to come forward,” says Ridolfi-Starr, School, in New York City. who spoke in a recent phone interview.

He is referring to the Department of Education’s discipline code, To date, she says, the camwhich recommends in-school paign has reached students in counseling and punishes a stu200 U.S. schools.

“Assault on a college campus is different than in a high dent with suspension.

KYIX holds a two-day Saliani was surprised to hear school because of the reality of residential living on a course where selected student from a reporter who attends his advocates are taught to undercollege campus rather than that of a high school and school that there were instancstand and change policies sures of sexual harassment in his the obvious different living environment that exists rounding issues of on campus classrooms. He said “assault on on a college campus.” rape and harassment. Over a college campus is different 120 student activists have been than in a high school because trained at these sessions as well of the reality of residential living at other workshops and online. on a college campus rather than The goal is for participants to go back to their high schools and that of a high school and the obvious different living environment spread the word and enact campus-wide policy changes. that exists on a college campus.”

At Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in Massachusetts, Eleanor Roosevelt High School offers an advisory lesson to students held a walk out last month to protest what they saw as make students more aware of their rights and to understand a widespread culture of sexual harassment and assault created healthy teen relationships, says Alison Cohen, a school guidance by students and teachers. counselor. This lesson is mandated by the New York City DepartProtest leaders received support from the nonprofit advocacy ment of Education for all high school students. organization End Rape on Campus. This is the kind of action that But students like Cara Levine, a leader of the school’s gender KYIX supports and encourages, though they weren’t involved sexuality alliance, stress the need for the same student advocacy with the Cambridge protest. that KYIX promotes.

Last April Kimberly De La Cruz’s male friend grabbed her Madison Hernandez, 16, a student in New York City, describes breasts in science class but she didn’t tell any authority figures. a stigma of “fear and shame” around discussions of sexual assault “I hate being the center of attention and I just didn’t want to start and harassment and says it’s important that more people know any trouble,” she said in an email interview. about these attacks.

De La Cruz no longer speaks to the boy. But had she known his When asked if she would approach the school administration if behavior could have been considered as creating a “hostile school she were assaulted, she said at this point she would not. “It’s a lot” environment” under Title IX, she said she would have emailed a she said, “and I just don’t think I could go through that.” teacher or a guidance counselor. “I wouldn’t want to physically talk to someone, the pity would kill me,” she said.

ABOUT SAMMY NORRITO Sammy Norrito, 16, is a junior at Eleanor Roosevelt High School and writes for the school’s newspaper, the ElRo Pawprint.

WOMEN’S ENEWS | 19

Teen Grammarian Makes Case for Nonbinary Pronouns By: Caroline Kubzansky From our partner Jewish Women’s Archive CREDIT: PENNSTATENEWS ON FLICKR, UNDER CREATIVE COMMONS

I am one of the biggest grammar freaks I know. I proudly count

myself as a “soldier of the subjunctive,” and I find cartoons about comma placement to be hilarious. So it may come as a surprise that I was excited when the American Dialect Society voted an “incorrect” use of English to be the defining word of 2015. The word in question? The singular “they.” To use “they” to express a single person, one could say, “I’m looking for my friend; they’re wearing a green jacket.”

It’s true that this use is grammatically ambiguous when referring to a person. On the other hand, it’s better to be slightly ambiguous than it is to be incorrect. Using “they” in the singular sense represents a massive step forward for the visibility and ac-

20 | TEEN VOICES

ceptance of the genderqueer/non-conforming community, many members of which use the they/them/their pronouns. When a person is genderqueer, it means that they do not identify as a man or a woman, but as a combination of the two, neither one, or as a different gender altogether. Another term to describe genderqueer people is nonbinary — one who does not fall within the traditional gender binary.

The American Dialect Society’s decision is groundbreaking because prior to this, many dismissed gender-nonconformity as an identity altogether, saying that nonbinary people are “confused,” or that they just want attention. Usually, this denial of genderqueer identity arrives with a refusal to use the correct

pronouns attached to it. Acknowledging this important use of the singular “they” represents a willingness to welcome the genderqueer community into the mainstream.

Many of my fellow grammar and English-language obsessives take issue with the they/them/theirs pronouns, whether it be with the awkward phrasing or the repurposing of a traditionally plural word. But here’s the thing: this is what the world is now.

To refuse to “participate” is to deny the identities of people who use them— and in this era of rapid social evolution, that’s no longer going to be acceptable. The American Dialect Society has signaled that we as a society are ready to acknowledge the gender nonconforming community as a complete entity, not just the way they look— starting with our speech.

Oddly enough, high fashion (a frequently elitist and exclusive industry) has been clued into the concept of gender nonconformity for some time. However, the picture of genderqueerness that the fashion world presents to us is severely lacking in a myriad of ways. While perusing “Jewesses with Attitude” (the Jewish Women’s Archive’s blog), a 2009 article by Leah Berkenwald, “Androgyny: Progressive or Exclusionary?” caught my eye. In the piece, Berkenwald detailed some of the aesthetic components of gender-ambiguous presentation, and discussed how high fashion had adopted “the androgynous look”— which is to say, in a pretty problematic manner. Most mainstream interpretations of genderqueerness are overwhelmingly skewed towards a “typical” young, thin, white man, when in reality there are infinite

“To refuse to ‘participate’ is to deny the identities of people who use them— and in this era of rapid social evolution, that’s no longer going to be acceptable.”

High fashion is the most prominent example of society’s hypocrisy with regard to the genderqueer community. For years, many have pushed the boundaries of gender presentation for the sake of an aesthetic, but the pronouns they/them/their applied to a single person are very recent additions to the average English vocabulary. Thus, the American Dialect Society’s decision is a

“Using ‘they’ in the singular sense represents a massive step forward for the visibility and acceptance of the genderqueer/non-conforming community, many members of which use the they/ them/their pronouns.” catch-up move of sorts. As a society, we have used bits and pieces of the concept of gender nonconformity, but have failed to recognize the state of being genderqueer in the media as anything more than a trend. We have used the face, but not the name. Humans like nothing better than to categorize ourselves— and yet, until very recently, if one looked up “genderqueer” in the dictionary, an entire identity didn’t exist. The dictionary, supposed catalogue of language, has finally stopped ignoring a significant group of people who use language in exactly the same way that the rest of us do: to express ourselves.

Welcome to a new age of inclusivity, grammarians.

ABOUT CAROLINE KUBZANSKY

Caroline Kubzansky is a junior at the Edmund Burke School in Washington, D.C. Her main interests are her school newspaper, running cross-country, reading history books and walking in the woods.

ABOUT JEWISH WOMEN’S ARCHIVE ways to represent this identity. One of the things I appreciated most about Berkenwald’s article was how she acknowledged the whitewashing and packaging of an incredibly complex identity that actually manifests in a million different ways. Seven years later, I’d like to add a Part II to her piece and point out that wellknown fashion publications began to trumpet the “androgynous” look because of how “new” it was— in other words, for its shock value and novelty.

No one’s identity is a fad.

The Jewish Women’s Archive’s Rising Voices Fellowship is a10‐month program for female‐identified teens in high‐school who have a passion for writing, a demonstrated concern for current and historic events, and a strong interest in Judaism, gender and social justice. The Jewish Women’s Archive is a national non‐profit devoted to documenting Jewish women’s stories, elevating their voices, and inspiring them to be agents of change.

Founded in 1995, JWA is the world’s largest source of material about and voices of Jewish women.

WOMEN’S ENEWS | 21

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