The world has changed: we now hear about the success of amazing women, young and old, from all over the world. Actresses, models and authors who have worked hard to get themselves into their high flying places are splashed over our media pages. But what about the young women changing the face of the world without the buzz?
Edwina Dunn, author of The Female Leadis on a mission to highlight these women's stories. The book, featuring photography by Brigitte Lacombe, is part of a non-profit campaign to offer young people more diverse role models and make female success stories more visible. Basically it's a chock full of stories of amazing women - some of whom you'll have heard of, and some who you won't.
Here are five women from The Female Lead whose stories captured our imagination - they're all under 30, none of them are particularly high profile, and they're all doing amazing things. Prepare to feel inspired...
**1. Lucy Bronze, 25, footballer and 2015 World Cup Medallist **
Lucy realised that she would face struggles as a woman who played football at just aged 12, when the FA told her she couldn’t play in a mixed team anymore. ‘I’d never seen a girl playing football, let alone played against another girl,’ she told The Female Lead. Instead, her parents drove her all over the country so she could continue to play on a girls team, after her coach told her that she would one day play for England. That she did, representing England at the 2015 World Cup. The team came third.
‘To succeed at sport, the first thing is that it has to be something that you love,’ Lucy continues. ‘The best players around the world, men and women, are so driven.’
Lucy is proud of herself because she is a role model. Something she didn’t have when she was younger: ‘The boys see male footballers, athletes, rugby players, and they don’t care what they look like – they just want to win. When I was younger, I didn’t really know about sportswomen. We need girls to play at a high level to act as role models for those coming up. My generation is doing that.’
2. Michaela DePrince, 22, ballet dancer, grand sujet, Dutch National Ballet
In the orphanage in Sierra-Leone where Michaela grew up the children were numbered number 1 to number 27. Number 1 got the most food and clothes. Number 27 got the least. ‘I was number 27,’ Michaela tells The Female Lead. ‘The aunties thought I was unlucky and evil because of my vertiligo.’
When she found a magazine with a picture of a ballerina on outside the orphanage she stored it in her underwear. ‘What struck me the most was that she looked so happy,’ she continued.
Once the rebels in her hometown occupied her orphanage, Michaela was adopted by a Jewish American couple. Her new parents allowed her to dance, and she went on to take part in the Youth America Grand Prix and secure places at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School and the Dutch National Ballet.
But Michaela wasn’t always welcomed into the world of ballet, and thanks her family for her strength to continue: ‘I worried that my vitiligo would be a problem but my skin turned out to be an issue in a different way. They want to see the same thing in the corps de ballet – white skinny dancers. I was stigmatised as a child and I had to grow up very fast. Being adopted showed me that it was OK to be weak sometimes. Dancing can be very painful and exhausting, which is why it’s so important to have my family.’
3. Roya Mahoob, 29, technology enterepeneur and co-founder, Digital Citizen Fund
In 2013 Roya was forced to move from her home country of Afgahanistan to America after receiving death threats for pioneering a non-profit organisation that helps women and girls learn to use social media and produce content so that they can they get paid. ‘The problem is, as a woman, if you get famous in Afghanistan in any field, you put yourself in danger,’ she told The Female Lead.
This wasn’t the first time her family have had to leave a country, though. Roya was born a migrant after her family had fled Afghanistan for Iran because of Russian attacks. When they returned to their home country, Roya applied for university, something she says she was lucky she could do. ‘My family was educated and my mother had worked. My parents gave me the opportunity to do the same, but it wasn’t the case for other girls’.
Now, after establishing three tech companies, she is encouraging women to use digital innovations to better themselves: ‘Conservative society wants to keep women quiet. Connectivity is the best tool to raise our voices.’
**4. Kat Kaelin, 28, US Army veteran **
Kat’s first deployment with the army left her heavily depressed. ‘My experience [in Iraq] was really bad. The men called the women’s quarters the ‘red-light district’ and we were given a rape whistle to carry everywhere we went,’ she told The Female Lead.
Fighting her depression, she decided to join a new initiative called Female Cultural Support Team (CST). Her role involved being on the front line, engaging with Afghan women, something that wasn’t seen as culturally appropriate for the male soldiers to do. ‘People say that women don’t go into combat but I got off the same helicopter as the men and was shot at by the same guns,’ she continues.
The success of the CST is what lead to the ban against women taking on combat roles being lifted in 2013, something which Kat is very aware, and very proud, of. ‘Our succesful group of women has helped to open things up so that women can now graduate from ranger school, and there are more possibilities in the future’.
Kat isn’t against any of her three daughters going into the army, but says she would warn them to expect the unexpected. ‘Whichever job you chose, you have to educate yourself and continue to learn. I’m excited now that doors are opening for younger women.’
5. Ashima Shiraishi, 15, rock climber
At just 15, Ashima only has five and a half hours of sleep a night. She wakes up at 6:30, goes to school until 3:30, then climbs until 8pm. She goes home, eats her dinner and does her homework just in time for bed at 1am.
‘It’s definitely hard to manage school and climbing,’ she tells The Female Lead. But after being announced as Climber of Year in 2015 it seems that she is pretty good at making it work. But why climbing? ‘I started rock climbing when I was six years old in Central Park in New York City. I kept on falling but every day I went back,’ she says.
As she improved, she began to take on more challenges, including the Open Your Mind Direct route at Santa Linya in Spain. She was the first girl, and the youngest person, to have climbed the route. ‘Climbing is exhilarating. You go up so high and sometimes it’s scary, but the fear is an exciting feeling, and when you get to the top, it’s the best feeling. I have fallen countless times but that’s what makes it so special when you get to the top’.
***You can support The Female Lead by buying the book for yourself or as a gift, or nominating a school to receive a free copy. ***
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.