On International Women’s Day, Lilly Singh wants to send the world a message about girl-on-girl hate

Impact

Activist and YouTube personality Lilly Singh wants to remind the world that sisterhood is unstoppable.

When I was in high school, it was almost normal to not get along with other girls,Singh, a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador working to end violence against women around the world, said in an interview. “We need to stop teaching our young girls that narrative.”

That’s why Singh started Girl Love, an online movement dedicated to forging solidarity between women all around the world.

“The mission of Girl Love today is simple,” Singh said. “It’s twofold, actually. On a social media standpoint, it’s about changing the narrative of what it means to be a girl today. How to navigate female friendships, how to support other women. From a more global standpoint, it’s about really real issues that affect women around the world — helping send girls to school in Kenya or spreading awareness about ending violence in India.”

While traveling to India for UNICEF, Singh saw the impact of that violence firsthand.

“I met some girls who had encountered just the most painful type of violence,” Singh said. “But the saddest part wasn’t even that — it was [that] they thought it was completely normal. A lot of them don’t realize that sexism is an issue. They think it’s just how things are supposed to be and when they’re mistreated, they think it’s because that’s their role in society.”

On International Women’s Day 2018, Singh wants you to join her movement to make the world a better place for women.

That journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step — and according to Singh, the first step we can take is to end the needless fighting between women.

“Although today is International Women’s Day, there’s still 364 other days in the year that women can really come together in this sisterhood,” Singh said. “I think first and foremost, we can stop girl-on-girl hate when we see it.”

In a powerful video op-ed for Mic, Lilly Singh breaks down how you can get involved. Watch it above.