No Backseats!

This morning I had the chance to join Beth, Alex, and Kim for a US Mission discussion with Ellie Smeal, Sharon Kotok, and Girls Learn International.  The session started at 8:30 AM.  It was an early start, and it was certainly worth it.  I was glad to hear from the panel of girls who articulately spoke about the issues girls face in relation to the MDGs.  The girls' stories of involvement with women's human rights was inspiring and being surrounded by so many awesome teens even made me feel a little bit old!  

It was been exciting to see youth involvement at the CSW.  Just as my research pointed out, as young people we are at once left out of politics and still the most vulnerable to social issues.  I know youth have been excluded from the formal discussion of formal politics for quite some time, we made sound like a broken record when we ask for inclusion but it is still necessary that we persist. No matter our age, race, sexuality, sex, gender, disability, level of education, wage, ethnicity, or anything else we must follow the advise given by both the mothers of both Ellie Smeal and young activist, Riley- "Don't take a backseat to anyone."