By Ioanna Moriatis

Young women are imagining and innovating the way forward. A rising cadre of leaders in their communities, their ideas will set future policy agendas, transform the world of impact, and shape the mindsets of their peers. They also serve as role models to younger girls who have yet to discover their power to lead change.

These young women are not just leading by example; they’re also offering up helpful advice. At Ashoka’s 3-day online WISE Up series, young female leaders shared their reflections and tips for how their peers and protégés can create social change. Today, on International Day of the Girl — A UN celebration of the rights, voices, and influences of young women—we’re sharing our takeaways from the conversation. Here are three insights for leading change, created by and for young women:

Find Your Mentor

Pinpoint someone in your community who inspires you to tap into your inner changemaker.

For Angela Lesmana, founder of Dare to Lead in Indonesia — an organization committed to inspiring changemaking and empathy in youth — that person was her fourth-grade teacher.

“I used to be someone who was indifferent, not caring about the world around me. If it wasn’t my problem, then just let it be, right?” she remembers. “One of my teachers…approached me and asked me, ‘Why do you go to school? What is your purpose here?’ over and over again, until I realized the reason.”

Soon after, she discovered her passion for inspiring youth to be leaders and launched a series of leadership camps, social awareness trainings, and mentorship opportunities.

Mentors can be teachers, family members, and friends. Their words often inspire new ideas and possibilities.

Lamea Tanjin Tanha, founder of TransEnd in Bangladesh, remembers her mother always exhibiting empathy for individuals in the transgender community in her area who had long faced discrimination from most members of her society. “My mom inspired me to work for this community,” Tanha says. “My mom told me, when you are grown up, when you have the ability to help, help this community.”

Fill the Gap

Be aware of your unique identity and ability to address a need.

A lack of diversity and representation within any community or space is an opportunity to make change. At the young age of 12, Manat Kaur, founder of Object in the United States, realized that she didn’t connect with the stereotypes of the female leaders and role models in her community. Through Object, she launched a platform to share diverse women and girls’ stories of success and organize experiential workshops for young women to develop their leadership skills and confidence.

“When I went into middle school, in grade six, I realized I didn’t have any woman who I could look up to who could tell me you don’t have to try and be popular and look like your stereotypical girl,” Manat explains:

“When I shared this concern with my friends, I was honestly shocked that many of them shared my experience, and that’s when I realized I had to do something.”

In Brazil, Isabelle Christina noticed at a young age that she wasn’t seeing enough Black women represented among her teachers or peers. “Everywhere I went, I started to be the only Black girl in the environment, so I was feeling negligent about not doing anything to change this reality,” she shares.

With her mother’s support, Isabelle created the Black Girls Project, an initiative aimed at encouraging young black women in Brazil to pursue their dreams. “Our goal is to see, 10 years from now, a lot of leaders who are Black woman [and see] those girls understanding that they have the potential to do whatever they want to do,” she adds.

Leading by Being

Be active and vocal in any space where you want to see change.

Young people are especially well-equipped to raise awareness and mobilize others around a cause, modeling the power of young changemakers through their extensive social media and school networks.

“We need … to understand our potential to achieve our goals, to achieve our dreams, because when we act to achieve all of those things, this is going to generate sustainable development for all the next generations that will come after us,” Isabelle says, urging young women tuning in to WISE Up to learn from the inspiring stories of her fellow young changemakers.

Sanjana Dixit, the founder of RutuChakra, a youth-led initiative working to promote menstrual hygiene and equal access to women’s health education and resources, reminds young women to never lose sight of the power they possess:

“The ability to help somebody else is a privilege. That in itself is a huge power that you have. Channel that power in the best way that you possibly can.”

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To view the full session and other WISE Up discussions, click here.