#rowanbedit

Peyton looking at Rowan 

“The downside to social media is it’s another place for girls to be made fun of and another way for girls to be degraded; the upside is that it’s also a way for girls— especially girls of colour, for example —to speak out and to take back some control.”

Rowan Blanchard  © Daria Kobayashi Ritch // Refinery29

Happy 16th birthday, Rowan Blanchard! (b. October 14th, 2001) 

[Activism] is such a learning process. I started thinking about the feminism I was initially being sold, which was basically that boys and girls should be equal. But there are intersections, and a lot of reasons why it is easier for me to achieve that equality than it is for some of my friends.

“I think social media is such a tool for people in my age group and such a tool for girls particularly. I only started using Instagram and Twitter myself when I turned 12. I feel like that’s where I started finding things that affected me, particularly politics. I learned through social media that we often talk about America like it’s a totally equal place, but that’s not always the case. You think certain things happen in third-world countries or places that are really far away from where you live, but through social media I realised that things are happening right in front of me.”

The only way we’ll ever know what it’s like to be you is if you work your best at being you as often as you can and keep reminding yourself, “that’s where home is.”