The Girls Issue features a collection of artists using their work to bring awareness to the complex experiences girls face around the world.
Although the challenges our girls confront daily often seem insurmountable and heartbreaking, the artists and writers in this issue remind us that if there is one continuous thread that connects all of their stories, it is resilience.
And yet we know resilience isn't enough. We know this because we continue to see the headlines: Ethiopian girls married off at age nine; Afghanistan girls poisoned for wanting an education; American girls trafficked as sex slaves; Mexican girls disappear by the hundreds; and a Pakistani girl is shot point blank in the head for going to school.
Then there are the stories that don't make the headlines. There are the girls we never hear about because they are silenced, censored, imprisoned, or killed. These are the stories--the unknowns--that trouble me most.
I wish that the Girls Issue was all about stories of hope. It is not. The truth is, there is much more trauma that exists. It is my hope that one day an issue focused on the challenges our girls still confront won't be needed.
Grace Aneiza Ali
a girl from Guyana
