We’ve heard about “The Girl Effect“ — how helping adolescent girls in developing countries can change the world. But what of the young girls here, in our midst, who relate to their peers around the world in such a way that by making themselves part of a global solution, they are in turn altering their own lives? This dialogue is beginning and it speaks of the resiliency of daughters around the world.
I came across Alaina Podmorow shortly after signing on with Tonic and she was the subject of my first story. In the midst of a harrowing divorce, I gravitated toward Tonic’s spirit, writing about people who cared about the state of the world, people who unequivocally sought a compassionate way of doing things. Alaina, at age 9, learned about the lives of girls in Afghanistan and without question decided she was going to do something about it. She founded the organization Little Women for Little Women in Afghanistan (LW4LW).
Inspiring Change
Since writing the story, my own daughter, Jemima, has started a LW4LW team at her school in Banff, Canada. Simply hearing that girls aren’t being educated in Afghanistan was enough for these two to want to help. Since this first bit of knowledge was understood, they’ve journeyed further — to being familiar with such things as gas attacks and acid burns, and marriage of girls their age. Such imagery arrived in their lives more safely than it does for Afghan girls, but with shock, needless to say.
Their passion to help separates them from the usual problems, and some might say, superficial everyday happenings of teenage or pre-teen life. This doesn’t mean, however, that life necessarily unfolds more easily.
Alaina is now a teenager. She has difficulty relating to many of her peers but of course feels the pressure to fit in. “The one shining light is her dedication to making change,” says her mom, Jamie. Alaina suffered a burnout this year, trying to be everything to everyone; now these teen things don’t have the same meaning for her and she says it is time to “go back to work.”
Jemima hit the ground running when we moved to Canada from Europe a year ago. Keen on starting her own Little Women team, it gave her a sense of purpose and an identity that held true meaning for her. Her dedication has helped her navigate her own path through her parent’s divorce. There are forces acting in her world that could potentially wreak havoc on her sense of self-worth. She’s voiced feelings of disconnectedness from life — profound and pretty troublesome words from a 10-year-old. It helps her to know other adolescent girls share her drive.
Daughter to Daughter
In step, Alaina has reached out to Jemima; shared with her the colored pencils that enliven the black and white world she, at times, gets stuck in. In an email to my daughter she wrote: “I am amazed at how sweet, wonderful and nice you are and I can definitely feel that you can make a huge difference in the world. Just remember whenever you feel discouraged or down, that it doesn’t matter how little or young you are, we can all make a difference and together we can change the world. You are a very inspirational girl, don’t ever change that!”
Perhaps this is meant to be a dialogue between two young girls — kindred spirits looking out for those less fortunate. To leak it, to expose the passion that enriches their lives, I do this cautiously because it trickles with pure liquid gold — quite possibly the stuff that moves humanity forward. But they are our daughters and we too take this wild ride with them and learn. Their authenticity is what keeps us grounded, it holds a certain authority over the world of the absurd and there’s not much that is stronger than that.
Sejal Hathi is another remarkable young woman. As a high school student in 2007, she founded the nonprofit Girls Helping Girls. In a TEDxTeen speech, she said, “When girls think about and reach out to one another, they empower each other to discover even their most hidden dreams and then act to fulfill and share them with each other.”
Of one girl she helped in particular she explains, “She showed me that when we give to others what we care about the most, we allow ourselves to heal all that is broken within us and to thereby redefine our own potential.” As mothers we may have naturally already learned this. To watch our daughters already living it is nothing short of remarkable. It gives us hope.
Photos courtesy of LW4LW and Girls Helping Girls.