‘It’s a good time to be a black woman’
Representation for black women is at the highest it has ever been in history across all areas. From politics, where a black woman is the vice president of (arguably) the most powerful country in the world, to Media, where several black women are top executives in leading media companies to entertainment, where black women break records every other week, black women are representing everywhere.
As such, black girls are inspired to strive for excellence by these magnificent women.
However, several young black girls have become inspirations in their own rights. These are young girls that show excellence by achieving stupendous feats.
In this article, we’ll be highlighting five young black girls who have made waves and broken records and are inspirations to us every day.
Marsai Martin
Marsai Martin is easily one of the most recognizable faces of the new generation of entertainers.
A (multiple) award-winning actress, the 18-year-old became Hollywood’s youngest actor to produce and star in her first major movie when she was 14!
The Black-ish actress has also launched her own production company, Genius Productions. She has also worked on several projects including raising awareness about single-vision patients and accelerating the natural hair movement.
Naomi Wadler
Stunning the International audience with her goosebumps-inducing and eloquent March For Our Lives speech in 2018 when she was just eleven, the now 16 years old, anti-gun violence activist became the face of activism in America.
Naomi’s activism is centred around the erasure of black girls as victims of gun violence in America.
She stated, ‘‘Black women [are] really what I like to focus on because we’re not really seen as women. We’re seen as things, and I love treating people like people.’’
She has continued her advocacy by emphasizing to parents and politicians how they can help young leaders and what children should remember as they speak up and seek meaningful change.
Emmanuella Mayaki
Emmanuella is a 13-year-old Nigerian computer genius who was accepted to study Computer Science at Mary Baldwin University, making her one of the youngest persons ever to be offered admission at a university in the United States.
At eleven, Emmanuella opened an ICT academy, CodeKid, for girls in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. Her dream was to close the gap in digital literacy for the African girl-child.
She was also offered a teaching position at a primary school in Coventry, England.
Alena Analeigh Wicker
Alena is another genius girl we cannot stop stanning. At age 12, she became the youngest person to intern with NASA.
She, however, veered from that path as she became the youngest Black person ever accepted to medical school.
She shared that she wanted to use medicine to help underrepresented people. She stated, “There are viruses all over the world that don’t have cures, and I want to be the person who helps to find those cures”
Vicky Kanu
Victoria Kanu is a 14-year-old Sierra Leonean poet who rose to fame after writing a poem for the victims of the Sierra Leone mudslides in 2017.
Working as a poet since she was six, Vicky has written poems to draw attention to several issues plaguing African girls, including child marriage, child labour, and female genital mutilation.
She was named one of the 50 most influential Sierra Leoneans and the Gospel Academy Poet of the Year.
