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Teens Educating Teens About Sexism

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For the Senegal YES Abroad virtual participants and YES inbound alumni, raising awareness about sexism in the U.S. and Senegal was an urgent issue. “We wanted to focus on raising awareness about [activist] women in hopes of inspiring our audience to take similar action. To us, it is important to educate teens about this issue because we feel that many people our age don’t think feminism is necessary. However, women (and the participants in our group) face sexism, oversexualization, and violence consistently.” To engage teenagers, the group decided to use an Instagram page "Teens Against Sexism."

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One of the challenges was involving audiences from both Senegal and the United States — countries separated by different time zones. The group also aimed to involve a guest speaker for a webinar targeting teens in the United States and Senegal. They used their social media platform to give shout outs to activists admired by the group. Group members valued raising awareness within the group and learning about sexism in both countries. “We believe that teens have an important role in combating sexism at home. This can be through simple acts like correcting the sexism you see in your day-to-day life, or through more consistent work like volunteering at women’s shelters.”