Not just a women's movement.

People often ask me why I Am That Girl is important to me. This is why.

Four facts from my friend Amanda’s gender study course at Boise State today:

• Women are a more valuable illegal trade commodity than drugs or firearms because they can be sold up to 15 times a day, 365 days a year, for the rest of their lives. 
• There are 107 million females missing from the world today.
• Sex trafficking starts with girls as young as eight years old through brothels & forced marriages.
• Despite regulations in western nations, in some cases, sex tours from the US to the Third World are offered as means by which lonely men can find a mate.

I Am That Girl is a global movement that empowers girls to be the best version of themselves. It is a family—a community of strong, beautiful, and inspiring young women. It is a form of healthy media. Above all else, it is a safe place to sit and talk about real stuff.

This is one of those real things.

People have a tendency to turn their shoulder to things that they don’t understand. For example, a significant amount of people have never heard of the Holocaust or don’t even believe that it ever happened.  Exact numbers will never be known, but an estimated eleven million people died as a direct result of the tragedy.

How can eleven million people die and the world not know about it? I mean, that is a huge number.

Okay, so let’s go back to the beginning. How can there possibly be 107 million missing females in the world?

Many Americans believe that this is a distant problem to them; however, sex trafficking is happening in our own back yard. According to DoSomething.org, between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the US every year. The International Labour Organization estimates that females represent the largest share of victims.

So what is the point of this post (or rant if you’d rather)? I just want people to be informed. I truly believe that awareness is the first step in eradicating sex trafficking. Females should never be treated as a commodity.

Reference: 

11 Facts About Human Trafficking (n.d.). In DoSomething.org. Retrieved April 17, 2014

Light my soul on fire.

My father has been in and out of jail/prison my entire life and as a result I am all too familiar with barbed wire, electric fences, cinderblock walls, and security checkpoints. By the time I was eleven I had visited the courthouse more times than the average person ever will. 

Lately, my father’s past has come up a lot in regard to my own life. People are quick to judge me because of my experiences when I was a child. But the thing is, that’s never really been my life—not by choice anyway. However, those struggles became the fuel that lit a passionate fire within me. 

Recently, I was having a conversation with three friends on a warm sandy beach about how attitude and determination make all the difference in life. Each one of us came from completely different backgrounds, but we all made the same decision to live a better life than that in which society predicted for us. One simple commonality in regard to our attitudes about life literally paved the path for one of the most inspiring friendships.

It is hard to come alive when your critics are constantly trying to break you down, but the world needs more people like you. More people who aren’t afraid to face their fears and defy statistics. It took me a long time to figure this out.

Tim Ferriss said it best, "If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is too. Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think."

After all, once you have accepted your flaws no one can use them against you.