Yara Shahidi may only be a college student, but her impact is so great she’s already been dubbed the voice of her generation. She’s founded a non-profit for civic engagement called Eighteenx18, stars in her own Black-ish spinoff, Grownish, and so impressed Michelle Obama that the former First Lady offered to write her a college recommendation letter. And did we mention she’s literally a Barbie?
But most importantly, she’s encouraging young people to make informed political opinions and engage in civic action. “There’s this assumption that young people are supposed to stay quiet and all of a sudden turn 18 and have fully formed opinions,” she told Glamour this year. “But the problem is that you haven’t been given a platform or the opportunity as a young person to develop or form those opinions.”
Introducing her onstage, comedian Trevor Noah said, “I’ve met few people in my life who are as enigmatic and amazing as Yara Shahidi is. She is equally brilliant, funny, intelligent, caring, and just all-around kick-ass.” Clearly, Yara Shahidi isn’t a typical college student—she’s a monumental civic activist. She’s sent a powerful message to her entire generation: It’s cool to be engaged and aware of the world. It’s cool to participate in democracy.
Shahidi accepted her Glamour 2019 Women of the Year Award with a stirring and inspiring speech. Read her full remarks below:
Wow. First and foremost, I just have to say thank you. It’s surreal hearing those words coming out of your [Trevor Noah’s] mouth, and I’m so grateful, because you were one of the first people who gave me a platform to talk about what I was doing with voting, and you’ve always been that person. And so, thank you for that.
I also have to thank Glamour for being that support system for me and for having this event in the first place. The one thing I’ve been thinking about is what it means to be born in this generation. This idea that if you are a woman, or if you are any other identity, what it means to be of the LGBTQ+ community, what it means to be an immigrant, what it means to be a person of color, you’re born telling yourself, being told, that your identity is in contrast to whatever is presented to you.
I didn’t prepare anything today, but it was because I knew that I was going to find an answer here. And I did. I was wondering what it meant to be a woman.
The conclusion I came up with is that to be a woman is to be an abolitionist. To be a woman is to understand the power of our yes, of course, but to understand how groundbreaking and system-shaking it is to say no. But it’s because no is productive. Our no doesn’t just sit still saying, I am okay being discontent with the system in front of me. Our no takes action. Our no stands up. Our no is allyship. Our no understands that I must advocate for something greater than myself because I am you and you are me and we are of each other. Our no understands that we are tearing apart this system, what it means to connect in spite of. But it because of our differences in creating spaces to celebrate one another.
Our no has made it possible for rooms like this. Our no understands that we will never settle. And I am so grateful to be part of a lineage both figuratively and literally of women who have said no. I’m so grateful to be a part of a generation of women who’ve said no. I’m so grateful to be in a space in which we are actively saying no.
And so with that, I guess all I have to say is a big thank you. A big thank-you and a big reminder that what this day has represented to me, to continue to bring people into the room that do not have the opportunity to. Because who are we if not each other? Thank you.
Find out more about Glamour‘s 2019 Women of the Year here.
