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The Buzz: Girls, Education and Progress

“GIRLS!  Who run the world?  Girls!  Who run this…?”

Okay, okay, we don’t want to be accused of hypocrisy, but recent stories highlighting Michelle Obama and the success of the President and First Lady’s “Let Girls Learn” initiative make us want to sing and dance like Beyoncé too!

On October 11th, a.k.a. International Day of the Girl Child, the First Lady teamed up with GLAMOUR to host a global conversation about education inequality. Girls from Tanzania, Peru, Jordan, the UK, Cambodia and the U.S. participated in the interactive live panel discussion via Skype.

On October 12th, CNN premiered “We Will Rise: Michelle Obama’s Mission to Educate Girls Around the World,” a documentary of her travels in support of Let Girls Learn to Morocco and Liberia.

Here are some of our favorite First Lady quotes from the panel and documentary:

  • “Through my education, I developed confidence.”
  • “The one way to get me to work my hardest [is] to doubt me. I will show you who I am.”
  • “Starting to do things that you don’t feel comfortable doing, but you push yourself to do them anyway,” according to Michelle Obama, that’s the “beginning of becoming a leader.”
  • “You don’t have to be somebody different to be important. You’re important in your own right.”
  • “We think we have to be right, we think we have to be perfect, we think that we can’t stumble. And the only way you succeed in life, the only way you learn, is by failing.”
  • “We can all rise together. We can all win.”

Launched in March of 2015, Let Girls Learn is active in over 35 countries and gained support from corporate partners and not-for-profit organizations in addition to their original partnership with the Peace Corps, the Department of State, the US Agency for International Development and the Millennium Challenge Corporation.  Its purpose is to help the 62 million girls’ who are not in school attain a quality education so they can reach their full potential and yes, you guessed it, run the world.

(Looking for some inspiration?  Check out Michelle Obama’s first ever Spotify playlist in honor of International Day of the Girl – no wonder we’re dancing!)