MEGHAN Markle has urged girls and women to “challenge injustice” as she spoke with “young activists”.
The Duchess of Sussex, who is pregnant with a baby girl, gave teens a platform to “help define a path forward” as their voices “can and should be heard”.
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Meghan, 39, hosted a roundtable event with Girls Inc. and National Women’s Law Center to allow young women to “speak about the breadth of challenges their generation is facing at this moment”.
A post on the Archewell site said she “heard from a powerful and passionate group of 13- to 18-year-olds—primarily girls of colour”, who are “already making an impact around education, social justice, and health and wellness in their own schools and communities”.
And the duchess spoke to the group about “everyday struggles” during the Covid pandemic – including mental health issues and racism.
Meghan also “reflected on the impact of trailblazing women throughout history” and asked the girls to share which female figures “embolden them to challenge injustice”.
Their answers included American civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer and Kala Bagai, who was one of the first South Asian women to immigrate to the US in the 20th Century.
The website said: “Amid the pandemic, The Duchess has been engaging with communities of girls and girl-serving organisations, taking an approach of listening to and learning directly from a new generation of leaders.
“All throughout the past year, she has convened conversations with women and girls, spoken with gender icons as well as new leaders, and partnered with key organisations advocating for a more equitable and just future.
“This work will continue as part of Archewell Foundation’s commitment to building compassionate communities that uplift women and girls, and serves as a reflection of the long-standing record of advocacy by The Duchess, who has been standing up for equity since she was a young girl herself.”
Meghan has always been a staunch feminist and broke tradition after her wedding to Prince Harry with her own speech on the official royal website.
The webpage included her famous quote from a United Nations conference in New York in 2015 when she said: “I am proud to be a woman and a feminist”.
It wasn’t the first time Meghan revealed her views, with the ex-actress even pushing for change when she was just 12.
Footage of Meghan as a school student showed letters demanding for a cleaning ad to change their sexist ad’s phrasing from “women” to “people”.
And last year, she praised Prince Harry as a feminist and called him a “beautiful” father for Archie to look up to.
