Meet Our 2021 Partner: She's the First

New York Women in Communications, Inc. (NYWICI) gets the credit for introducing us – we both received college scholarships from this professional organization. We were both first-generation college students (at different schools) and so this extra tuition money, along with a powerful network of professional mentors, was invaluable to us. But the most unexpected benefit of the scholarship program is that we met each other. We connected via Facebook at the fancy awards luncheon in 2007.

A couple years after we’d connected, in 2009, I posted an idea on my Facebook page: Millions of girls lacked access to education worldwide, but most people didn’t realize this nor understand how to help. Why not launch a social media campaign called She’s the First to raise awareness and funds? And would anyone like to join? Christen was the only person who messaged back with an enthusiastic “yes!” And She’s the First was born, with no expectation back then that it would blossom into a robust global non-profit organization, at the forefront of advocating for girls’ rights globally.

When we started STF, our goal was to get girls to graduation. But over the course of a few years, we realized that access to a classroom wasn’t the only thing holding girls back – if only it were that easy! Girls around the world have to deal with all of these broken systems of patriarchy, racism, poverty…the list goes on. So to fight against that, we now work on the systems around girls, by building up the women-led organizations who are with them each and every day, and by advocating with and for girls for their rights. We wanted to be part of a bigger wave of change.

Today, She’s the First takes on an even deeper meaning, as we ultimately fight to dismantle patriarchy and systems that hold girls and women back. It means putting girls first in decisions that affect their lives. She’s the First started with a belief in the power of education for a girl. That belief hasn’t changed, but now we recognize how important it is to fight for all the rights girls have (visit girlsbillofrights.org for more on that topic), because an education can only take you so far, if you are ultimately at a disadvantage due to your gender.

We like to say we are work wives! Our partnership and trust in each other runs deep and at this point we can read each other’s minds and finish each other’s sentences pretty well. That said, we have our own distinct personalities, skill sets, and talents, and when we work together, we bring out the best in each other. We’ve learned so much about conflict resolution, about trusting your partner, and about supporting one another that we joke we learned how to be married from our relationship.

Our experiences as girls shape our understanding of the world, and the way the world treats girls sets us up for a lifetime of acceptance – acceptance of a lower wage, of insane body ideals, of the emotional and mental labor we’re expected to take on. The first time an adult tells a child to wear a longer dress or lets her know the boys are only teasing because she’s pretty, that adult has begun paving the way for a lifetime of inequalities. Let’s not allow another generation to grow up thinking that gender limits their options in life.

I grew up surrounded by strong women – and a few abusive men. It was clear to me from a very early age that the system often worked in favor of men, especially when I watched how hard my mom worked as a waitress and later as a nurse, or how my grandmother was constantly in motion around the house or driving to appointments or the store. I’d never seen a man work as hard as I saw the women in my life work each and every day – and when I saw men yell or belittle or otherwise take advantage of their power, it made me see red. I wasn’t sure how I was going to change that, but I knew I didn’t want to live in a system that looked down on girls and women.

For any changemaker, you’ll find that the problem and issues you are trying to solve are ultimately so complex and overwhelming. It’s easy to feel like you’ll never achieve your end goal. We felt this in the past few years when leaders came to power who reversed progress that took decades to achieve. It’s difficult to confront infinite needs when you have finite resources.


How we deal with that is by creating smaller milestones along the way, so we can measure progress that will take a long time, even generations, to achieve. One of our favorite mantras is “no one can do everything, but everyone can do something.” When you are feeling discouraged, we hope that you remember those words and stay focused on what you can do, because it is significant. All of our small actions add up when we’re showing up as a collective movement.

Pre-pandemic, 130 million girls worldwide were out of school. Now it’s predicted that after COVID-19, 20 million more girls will never return, as global poverty is increasing for the first time in 20 years. These are dire circumstances, but this problem is solvable! The key is investing in the solutions of grassroots, women-led organizations serving the most at-risk girls.

At She’s the First, our COVID-19 Response Fund is focused on three key interventions: providing basic needs to girls and their families, feminist mentorship, and tech access to enable remote education.

One of the biggest indicators that a girl will drop out of school is her family’s economic situation. That’s why providing families with food, water, and hygiene supplies during the pandemic, in exchange for their girls staying in the program, is so effective in preventing school drop-out. And pre-pandemic, many funders might have thought providing girls in low-income countries with tablets and laptops was a “luxury,” but it’s quite clear now that connectivity is not a luxury – it’s a right! Having access to remote education will enable girls to leapfrog ahead, even after the pandemic is long behind us.

Use your voice! Follow @shesthefirst on Instagram so you’re the first to know about our campaigns; in fact, we have one starting this month – #MentorsMakeItHappen – that we’d love you to join. Learn about why feminist mentorship is so important for girls and take an action to support She’s the First in honor of your own mentor.