卡羅琳·博洛尼亞 陳天怡
Below is a list of women who changed the world when they were young girls and teens. From promoting girls’ education to raising money for meaningful causes to marching for civil rights, their accomplishments are impressive and inspiring.
1. Ruby Bridges
In 1960 at the age of 6, Ruby Bridges became the first black student to attend William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. The first-grader faced protests and riots and had to walk to school accompanied by federal marshals. She became an icon and inspiration in the Civil Rights Movement1.
2. Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani human rights advocate known for her activism in promoting education for girls. In 2012, when she was just 15 years old, a Taliban gunman shot her in an assassination attempt in retaliation for her work. At the age of 17, she received the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the youngest Nobel laureate.
3. Anne Frank
A German-born Jewish girl who moved to the Netherlands during the Nazi regime, Anne Frank rose to fame following the publication of the diary she kept while hiding from the Gestapo. After her family was discovered and arrested, Frank died at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945 at the age of 15. Her father Otto—the only surviving family member—was moved reading her diary after the war and published it posthumously2. It has been translated into more than 60 languages.
4. Alexandra Scott
Alexandra Scott was diagnosed with a form of pediatric cancer called neuroblastoma shortly before her first birthday. When she was just 4 years old, she set up her first lemonade stand in her front yard to raise money for childhood cancer research. Inspired by her story, people around the world set up their own lemonade stands to raise money for her cause. By the time she died in 2004, she had raised $1 million. Her family continues her legacy through Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation.
5. Claudette Colvin
Nine months before Rosa Parks’ famous arrest3, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin stood up against segregation in Alabama by refusing to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery. She was arrested, and a year later was one of the original plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, a case that led the U.S. Supreme Court to declare bus segregation laws4 in Alabama and Montgomery unconstitutional.
6. Bana Alabed
A Syrian girl named Bana Alabed grabbed the world’s attention with her series of heartbreaking tweets from inside the besieged city of Aleppo starting in 2016. Now 8 years old, Alabed continues to advocate for the people of Syria and draw attention to conditions in the war-torn country.
7. Jazz Jennings
Jazz Jennings was just 6 years old when she gave an interview to Barbara Walters for a television special about transgender children. Since that time, she’s continued to educate the world about what it means to be transgender. The LGBTQ5 activist and YouTube star has a TLC show called “I Am Jazz” and co-wrote a children’s book by the same name. Now 17, she regularly speaks out about issues affecting the trans community.
8. Audrey Faye Hendricks
In 1963, 9-year-old Audrey Faye Hendricks joined thousands of fellow kids and teens in the Children’s Crusade, a nonviolent demonstration in Birmingham to stand against segregation. Hendricks was among the hundreds of students arrested and spent about a week in jail for her activism. Images from the Children’s Crusade—which highlighted the violent response from local authorities—caused outrage around the world.
9. Capri Everitt
At the age of 11, a Canadian girl named Capri Everitt set out to raise money for orphaned and abandoned children. She achieved this by traveling with her family to 80 countries, where she sang each national anthem in the national language. Proceeds from her fundraiser went to SOS Children’s Villages6.
10. Mary Shelley
English author Mary Shelley was just 18 years old when she wrote Frankenstein, which many credit as the origin of science fiction. Thus, Shelley has been called “the teenage girl who invented science fiction.”
11. Yusra Mardini
At the age of 18, Yusra Mardini made history as one of the members of the first Olympic refugee team in Rio de Janeiro. While fleeing Syria the previous summer, she helped save the lives of fellow refugees after the overloaded dinghy taking them to Greece started to sink. She jumped into the Aegean Sea and helped push their vessel to safety.
12. Margaret E. Knight
When she was 12 years old, Margaret Knight witnessed a horrific accident involving a mechanical loom at a cotton mill. To prevent harm from befalling other mill workers, she invented a safety device for the machine, which many other mills adopted.
13. Amariyanna Copeny
When she was 8 years old, Amariyanna aka “Mari” Copeny of Flint, Michigan, wrote a powerful letter to President Barack Obama asking him to meet with her and others from the city during their visit to D.C. for the congressional hearings on the water crisis. Obama responded by saying he would be going straight to Flint to learn more about the public health crisis and see what could be done. Over the past years, “Little Miss Flint” has become a well-known activist working to better her community. “Letters from kids like you are what make me so optimistic for the future,” Obama wrote in their correspondence.
14. Yuan Yuan Tan
Chinese ballet dancer Yuan Yuan Tan started representing her country in international competitions as a young teen. At 17, she became the the youngest ever principal dancer at the San Francisco Ballet, as well as the first Chinese dancer to earn that title in a major Western company. She gives talks around the world, inspiring young dancers to follow their artistic dreams.
15. Sylvia Mendez
At 8 years old, Sylvia Mendez was instrumental7 in a landmark 1946 desegregation case, which helped pave the way for the civil rights movement and future integration. Mendez v. Westminster challenged the policy that Latino students like Mendez, who was of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent, couldn’t attend “whites-only schools” and had to go to so-called “Mexican schools.” Following the success of the case, Mendez became one of the first Latino children to attend a previously all-white school and grew up to become an acclaimed civil rights activist.
16. Bindi Irwin
Bindi Irwin carried on her father Steve Irwin8’s conservation legacy following his death in 2006. When she was 8 years old, she launched “Bindi the Jungle Girl” to encourage more kids to get interested in animals and wildlife conservation. She has continued to make TV appearances, published books and furthered her father’s causes.
下列女性在兒童或青少年時期就改變了世界。她們的成就,無論是促進女童教育、為有意義的事業募捐,還是參與民權游行,都令人矚目且鼓舞人心。
1. 魯比·布里吉斯
1960年,6歲的魯比·布里吉斯成為新奧爾良州威廉弗朗茨小學的首名黑人學生。面對抗議和暴動,就讀一年級的她不得不在聯邦法警的陪同下走去學校。她由此成為民權運動的一個標志人物,激勵了運動的發展。
2. 馬拉拉·優素福
馬拉拉·優素福是巴基斯坦的人權斗士,以積極推動女童教育而聞名。2012年,她年僅15歲時,一名塔利班槍手出于對她所做工作的報復,試圖暗中槍殺她。17歲那年,她獲得諾貝爾和平獎,成為最年輕的諾貝爾獎得主。
3. 安妮·弗蘭克
安妮·弗蘭克是生于德國的猶太人,在納粹統治時期遷往荷蘭居住。躲避蓋世太保期間,她寫下了一本日記,后經出版而聞名于世。弗蘭克在全家被發現并逮捕后,于1945年死于伯根—貝爾森集中營,終年15歲。她的父親奧托是唯一幸存的家庭成員,戰后讀到她的日記,深受感動并將日記出版。這本日記已被譯成60多種語言。
4. 亞歷山德拉·斯科特
亞歷山德拉·斯科特在即將年滿1周歲時被診斷患有一種兒科癌癥——神經母細胞癌。年僅4歲時,她在家中前院搭起了第一個檸檬水小攤,為兒童癌癥研究籌款。世界各地的人們為她的故事所鼓舞,紛紛搭起自己的檸檬水小攤,為她支持的事業募捐。2004年她去世之時,已經籌集了100萬美元善款。她的家人通過“亞歷克斯檸檬水小攤基金”繼續完成她生前的愿望。
5. 克勞德特·科爾文
著名的羅莎·帕克斯被捕事件發生9個月前,15歲的克勞德特·科爾文在亞拉巴馬州蒙哥馬利的一輛公交上拒絕讓座,以示對種族隔離的反抗。她遭到逮捕,1年后,成為布勞德訴蓋爾案的初審原告之一,美國最高法院在該案中宣布亞拉巴馬州和蒙哥馬利市的公交隔離法違憲。
6. 芭娜·阿拉貝德
自2016年起,一個名叫芭娜·阿拉貝德的敘利亞女孩在被圍困的阿勒頗城中發布了一系列令人心碎的推特,吸引了全世界的目光。阿拉貝德現已8歲,仍然在為敘利亞民眾奔走,呼吁大家關注這個戰火紛飛的國家。
7. 潔絲·詹寧斯
潔絲·詹寧斯年僅6歲時就在一期關于跨性別兒童的電視專題節目中接受了芭芭拉·沃爾特斯的采訪。此后,她一直在向世界講述跨性別者的人生。作為LGBTQ積極分子和優兔紅人,她在TLC上開設了一檔節目“我是潔絲”,并與人合著了一本同名兒童讀物。她現已17歲,經常公開探討跨性別群體所面臨的問題。
8. 奧黛麗·法耶·亨德里克斯
1963年,9歲的奧黛麗·法耶·亨德里克斯和數千名兒童與青少年一起,參加了伯明翰的非暴力反種族隔離示威活動“兒童十字軍”。作為數百名被捕學生中的一員,亨德里克斯由于積極參與活動,在監獄被關押了約1周。兒童十字軍活動的影像突顯了地方當局的暴力鎮壓,引起了世界各國民眾的憤慨。
9. 卡普里·艾福利特
加拿大女孩卡普里·艾福利特11歲時開始為孤兒和棄兒籌集善款。她為此在家人的陪伴下前往80個國家,用該國語言演唱該國國歌。她將募捐所得都捐贈給了SOS兒童村。
10. 瑪麗·雪萊
英格蘭作家瑪麗·雪萊年僅18歲時就寫出了被許多人譽為科幻開山之作的《弗蘭肯斯坦》,因此被稱為“發明了科幻的少女”。
11. 尤思拉·馬爾蒂尼
尤思拉·馬爾蒂尼18歲時,作為里約熱內盧奧運會難民代表隊的一員創造了歷史。前一年夏天,在逃離敘利亞前往希臘時,她乘坐的救生艇因超載開始下沉。她跳進愛琴海,幫助將小艇推到安全地帶,拯救了難民同胞的生命。
12. 瑪格麗特·E.奈特
12歲時,瑪格麗特·奈特在棉紡廠目睹了一起機械紡織機造成的慘案。為防止其他紡織廠工人受傷,她發明了一種紡織機安全裝置,后有多家棉紡廠采用。
13. 阿瑪尼亞娜·科本尼
密歇根州弗林特市8歲的女孩阿瑪尼亞娜·科本尼 (也被稱為“瑪尼”·科本尼)寫了一封慷慨激昂的信給奧巴馬總統,請求總統在她和同伴前往華盛頓參加水危機國會聽證時與他們見面。奧巴馬回信稱,他會直接前往弗林特了解這一公共衛生危機的情況,并尋求對策。過去幾年,“小弗林特女士”已經成為一位為所在社區謀求福利的著名活動家。奧巴馬在兩人的通信中寫道:“正是像你這樣的孩子寫來的信,讓我對未來充滿信心。”
14. 譚元元
中國芭蕾舞演員譚元元十幾歲時就開始代表國家參與國際賽事。17歲時,她成為舊金山芭蕾舞團歷史上最年輕的領舞,也是在西方大型舞團獲此殊榮的首位中國舞者。她在世界各地演講,激勵年輕的舞蹈演員追尋自己的藝術夢想。
15. 西爾維婭·門德斯
8歲的西爾維婭·門德斯是1946年一樁消除種族歧視案件的關鍵人物,這一標志性案件為民權運動和此后的種族融合奠定了基礎。當時的政策不允許墨西哥和波多黎各血統的門德斯以及像她一樣的拉丁裔學生進入“白人學校”學習,而必須去所謂的“墨西哥學校”上學。門德斯訴威斯敏斯特學區案對這一政策提出了質疑。門德斯勝訴后,成為一所前白人學校的首批拉丁裔學生之一,并最終成長為受人愛戴的民權活動家。
16. 賓蒂·歐文
在父親史蒂夫·歐文2006年去世后,賓蒂·歐文繼承了父親保護自然資源的遺志。她8歲時推出了電視系列節目“叢林女孩賓蒂”,鼓勵更多兒童關注動物和野生動物保護。今天,她仍在參與電視節目、出版圖書并延續父親的事業。