I first heard about Girl Up at the 2018 Los Angeles Youth Solutions Summit, where I was a youth speaker. There I met fellow speaker Kavita Rai, a Girl Up Teen Advisor at the time, and Girl Up Champion Monique Coleman. They sparked my curiosity, and more, my conviction—Girl Up was a key platform to turn the critical ideas at the summit into actionables.
Kickstarting my involvement, I became a 2019-2020 Teen Advisor (TA). As TAs from every nook and cranny of the world, we carried with us lifetimes, each beautiful and unalike—yet, we shared the same passion. I took this with me the following year, as co-chair of the next TA class. I then started the first Girl Up chapter at my high school and continued with my involvement with Girl Up throughout the Los Angeles region, from spearheading menstrual drives to leading local lobbying efforts for the Keeping Girls in School Act. I co-emceed the largest Girl Up Leadership Summit in 2021, which featured Hillary Clinton and Meghan Markle as guests.
Girl Up taught me not just how, but why diversity—and diversity through sisterhood — is a strength. I’m grateful to have grown up in Los Angeles, among the most diverse cities in the U.S.—but Girl Up illustrated the power of diversity itself when you harness it. Girl Up encouraged me to always practice dual awareness: to understand your own privilege and how you take up a space, in tandem to knowing how those spaces have been crafted. Through Girl Up, I also understood that living feminist values means always recalling feminist histories—and learning the importance of fighting for them when they become censored.
Since Girl Up, I have pursued my love of storytelling; through my work, I showcase the impact of policy. Now, I work at ABC7 Chicago News on their Assignment Desk. I recently graduated from Northwestern University as the Mateja Memorial Scholar. Throughout my time in college, I have worked at ABC7 Chicago’s investigative team; Foreign Policy’s podcasts; MSNBC on the women-led The Rachel Maddow Show and Alex Wagner Tonight; China Documentary Media International, Co.; and Midstory. I have also produced an award-winning short documentary on a mother of five fighting to reunite with her undocumented husband, and have covered national security in Washington, D.C. for the Medill News Service. My goal is to one day become a correspondent focused on international news and politics, covering those stories on-air and through video or documentary.
Being a leader in all these regards means I maintain a responsibility that is never singular.
In all of these endeavors, I hope to utilize my platform to help others tell their stories—not just what they are experiencing, but why. I tell myself that I lead by not overwriting others’ stories, but providing a platform through news and journalism for others to tell their own—as it was always their own. When I think about being a journalist for girls and women, I think about how in many cases, they are not believed or trusted the first time they speak their truths. I think about how freedom of speech supplements the very structure of journalism, but that so many women and girls do not have access to it. All of these reasons drive me to not just lead through storytelling, but show the world in the most intentional way I can that women and girls tell stories to live.
To me, being a leader means being the most empathetic yet critical journalist I can be. As the youngest woman of color in my newsroom, practicing leadership means always questioning journalistic norms that may be rooted in monolithic tradition. Being a journalist-leader also means paving the way for the community—you are who the community turns to when authorities aren’t living up to their titles. Being an AAPI woman leader—who wants to show girls on screen that they, in their full identities, cultures and selves, can do what I do despite the statistics—that means being a leader for a generation. Being a leader in all these regards means I maintain a responsibility that is never singular.
And to this next generation of leaders: never be afraid to speak up on a truth, but also understand that there are many different ways to do so. Within the same vein, understand that different kinds of leadership exist, and they are each valid in their own way—be the leader that is bold, boldly kind, but that is boldly you. Always remember why you joined this campaign for the world in the first place; hold onto that as you move forward in life. Lastly, read as much as you can! Always ask for reading recommendations—there are never enough.
