Meghan Markle’s speech at the 2020 Girl Up Leadership Summit

Meghan Markle gave a virtual speech at the 2020 Girl Up Leadership Summit. Her session was called “The Time Is Now”,where she talked about people in power and encouraged young people to make them uncomfortable. She said:

“I want to share something with you.

“It’s that those in the halls and corridors and places of power, from lawmakers and world leaders to executives, all of those people, they depend on you more than you will ever depend on them.

“And here’s the thing: they know this.

“They know that all of you, at a younger age than any modern comparison, are setting the tone for an equitable humanity. Not figuratively, literally.

“This is a humanity that desperately needs you.

“To push it, to push us, forcefully in a more inclusive, more just, and more empathetic direction.

“To not only frame the debate, but be in charge of the debate—on racial justice, gender, climate change, mental health and wellbeing, on civic engagement, on public service, on so much more.

“That’s the work you’re already out there doing.”

“Another thing about those lawmakers and leaders and executives I mentioned earlier.

“Now many of them, better or worse, they don’t listen until they have to because the status quo is easy to excuse and it’s hard to break.
“But it will pull tightest right before snapping.

“Women have always gotten a lot of, ‘Well, that isn’t how it’s done” or “Yeah, that’s an idea, but let’s do this instead’.

“But when do we hear that as women? We hear that in the moments we challenge the norms.

“So if that’s the case, I say to you, keep challenging, keep pushing, make them a little uncomfortable.

“Because it’s only in that discomfort that we actually create the conditions to reimagine our standards, our policies, our leadership; to move towards real representation and meaningful influence over the structures of decision-making and power.”

Michelle Obama also addressed the virtual meeting which was attended by nearly 40,000 people aged 13 to 22 across 172 countries.