Author: Nova Macknik-Conde
This is for the girls.
The girls who protested,
The girls who picked up a pen,
Moving hearts, changing minds, bringing together thousands,
Using their voices to shout louder than the dissenters ever could,
To show that education is a universal right,
And that they will not stand for anything less.
This is for the women.
The women who knew their worth,
That they were powerful and intelligent,
That they deserved better,
And that they will never be lesser.
This is for the ladies.
The ladies the world over, The ladies anywhere, anywhen, and anywho,
Who stood together and changed the future.
To be a young girl in this day and age,
To look up to these icons,
To have centuries of heroines behind me,
Revealing the path ahead,
Whispering in my ear the truths they upheld so proudly.
A girl with an education is unstoppable—but barriers like gender discrimination, poverty, and exploitation prevent many girls from reaching graduation. Our Youth Ambassadors created the Power of Poetry campaign to amplify girls' voices about this issue for Poetry Month and Global Action Week for Education.
Nova Macknik-Conde is 11 years old and she lives in Brooklyn, NY, U.S., with her parents, her two older brothers, and her two guinea pigs: Cannoli and Snickerdoodle. Nova enjoys writing poetry and fantasy, in addition to being passionate about mythology, philosophy, history, and STEAM. She serves as a Young Reviewer for Frontiers for Young Minds and as a Blogger for Stone Soup magazine. Nova’s writing has been recognized by The Betty Award, the EngineerGirl Writing Contest, the Inklings Book Contest, and Writopia’s Worldwide Plays Festival. Her poetry has appeared in print in Stone Soup magazine, Skipping Stones magazine, and Cricket magazine.