(2024 Nellie Wong Magic of Movies Essay Contest)
“We are girls, and together we are fearless.” This is a powerful quote from the She Creates Change movie. I gazed my eyes upon the magical movie theater screen at the theater as it began, thinking that the film might be dull. Little did I know that what I was about to witness was remarkable, unlike any other documentary I had watched before. After my experience with this screening, I’ve begun to feel more appreciative of the opportunities I have to attend school and not take any of my privileges for granted.
While watching this astonishing film, my mind shifted and became more thoughtful about the issues these brave girls experienced. To begin with, I was aware that many girls in the world do not have the opportunity to attend school. However, even knowing this, I was shocked to find out that at least one hundred and thirty million girls in the world cannot walk to a classroom and are forced to quit for several reasons. Reasons such as poverty, cultural norms, and child marriage. After I arrived home, I thought about how unfortunate it is for girls to not be able to attend classes. All children deserve a significant education that teaches them about what they can do better in their areas of growth.
Additionally, I was aware of some topics the movie featured, such as sexual harassment, beauty expectations, and safety insecurities, but I was still surprised to find out what horrors the girls had to experience. Something that was completely new to me was that families across the world forbid their daughters to attend school for a week because of having their period. It was horrific to discover that families force their daughters to be all alone in a house and that they need to use towels and water to sanitize themselves. Although I was alarmed to find this out, I appreciated becoming enlightened on this issue.
Expressing these topics through drawings brought up so many emotions, experiences and realities. Metaphors of birds in cages, seconds of process of how a shy but brave girl mastered karate, and bricks shattering in a home due to fights, were all so vivid and meaningful. The animation of the movie focused on the pain the girls had to experience, but also the way they made it through. For example, I adored the story in Sri Lanka about a girl who was almost forced to live in the city and work far away from her family because of a drought. The way the movie described how the drought had affected the girl and her family was tragic to watch. However, it was magnificent to see how one piece of knowledge can help an entire family and a small village. If I had learned this through a different way, such as a class lecture or book, I may not have grasped the subject as well as I did in the animation. This is because I believe verbal mediums do not express experiences as powerfully as drawings, even though words have power to influence and inform minds.
This movie inspired me to dig into these issues and learn a similar topic to menstruation getting in the way of girls’ education. While reading an article by UNICEF, I learned women in Senegal are helping girls have menstruation products due to non-functional toilets and lack of access to hygiene products. Due to this, many girls are forced to take many days off or drop out of school. I discovered that women in the Kaffreine region are currently committed to creating affordable reusable pads for young girls in school and are training women and men to stitch recycled clothing fabrics into pads. Adding on to period poverty, I’m part of a club called Social Justice in school where we are holding a menstrual products drive and donating our products to an organization in San Francisco called “La Casa De Las Madres”.
In conclusion, I had an extraordinary experience at the theater watching She Creates Change. I hope Room To Read will continue to make movies just like the amazing one I watched to help raise awareness about other important issues in the world.