I started my fight for justice when I was just 11 years old (I am 15 now) when my dad took me to the Portland Women’s March. We marched alongside my mom who was fighting in DC. Since then it was been a main aspect of my life to do all I can to fight for justice for those who are oppressed. This includes attending Black Lives Matter protests, organizing women’s rights walkouts at my school, signing petitions, etc. Recently I won the “Teen Voices for Racial Justice” essay contest with Portland Monthly Magazine. Winning allowed me to donate $1000 to a non profit of my choosing. I selected the Black Resilience Fund. I also designed and created digital graphics for Black Earth United, a Portland based, Black owned business. I think being a youth power core coordinator is an amazing opportunity that I can bring my many skills to and will provide me with skills to use later in life as well as a way to amplify my voice for justice.

What does intersectionality mean to you?
To me, youth intersectionality is inevitable. A lot of the time, that word brings with it a negative connotation but I believe it is truly beautiful. We live in a globalized world and Gen Z is the first generation to be raised and to grow up among the effects of such. While sometimes this means we are all too aware of horrible things that occur worldwide, it also means we are at the forefront of wanting to fix them. Once redlined and segregated communities, blocked off to solely their race, now go to school together, text each other, watch each other depicted in media. We know LGBTQ+ family members, friends, and idols. Suddenly this small world became so much more vast and children, the youth, the future, were the ones who accepted it with open arms. To me this means everything. It fills me with a great pride to know that I am the first along with my peers to be experiencing this new accepting and loving world. This is not to say that there aren’t a million things that need fixing but knowing that that is possible and I can do my part in it means the world.