International Day of the Girl

It’s a very awareness-raising week this week. Yesterday was World Mental Health Day, and today is International Day of the Girl. In 2011, following a campaign by global charity Plan, the UN General Assembly decided 11th October is the day to celebrate girls all over the world, recognising the importance of their rights and the gravity of the challenges they face.

For its second year, the day has been dedicated to ‘Innovating for Girls’ Education’. According to the UN website, it will ‘address the importance of new technology, but also innovation in partnerships, policies, resource utilization, community mobilization, and most of all, the engagement of young people themselves.’ You can’t say fairer than that.

Here in the big smoke, the day got off to a flying (or slowly rotating) start with an all-female speed-mentoring takeover of the London Eye, where lucky schoolgirls got 15-minute sessions with women such as Ruby Wax and Jenny Eclair. A few steps away, the Southbank Centre’s WOW Days Initiative launched – aiming to encourage feminism in school classrooms.

There are some pretty amazing ladies lending their support – all the way from Katy Perry to those involved via Plan UK, such as Sky News presenter Gillian Joseph and our very own What I See ambassador, Jude Kelly. And it wouldn’t be a real party without WISP contributor and Science Grrl Anna Zecharia, who tweeted us from Southbank itself.

The day may nearly be over, but the London Eye hasn’t finished lending its support… keep an eye out tonight as it crowns the celebrations by glowing pink.