“When I was a Child” speech by Helena Donato-Sapp at the Women’s Festival 2025 hosted by the Fullerton Museum Center on March 8.

(2009) In the year that I was born, Michelle Obama became the first African American First Lady of the United States.

(2010) When I was a child of one, Elena Kagan was confirmed to the Supreme Court of the United States, the fourth woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

(2013) When I was a child of four, the ban against women in the military was removed. When I was a child of four, three women started the Black Lives Matter Movement after 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot to death.

(2014) When I was a child of five, 17-year-old Malala was named the youngest Nobel Laureate in history and Emma Watson launched the #HeforShe campaign. 

(2015) When I was a child of six, I had to confront the fat-shaming of boys in my own classroom and I learned quickly that some boys are raised to demean women, even 6-year-old boys.

(2016) When I was a child of seven, I had my first piece of art curated into a national museum collection, showing that young people are capable of much more than many adults believe us to be capable of.

(2017) When I was a child of eight, the #MeToo Movement got a second wind and caused a reckoning that shined a light on sexual misconduct in the workplace. When I was a child of eight, the words “Nevertheless, she persisted” became a battle cry. And when I was a child of eight, I published my first book chapter in a book titled Queer Families and, at the age of eight, I wrote this in that chapter:  “I am 8 years old and I know that feminism is when you believe that girls are equal to boys.  And I know that misogyny is when boys don’t like girls.”

(2018) When I was a child of nine, 18-year-old Emma Gonzalez gave the speech of a lifetime against gun violence.  When I was a child of nine, I began lecturing at university classes to tell future educators that “Kids can tackle tough topics.”

(2019) When I was a child of ten, I was named the Designated Poet of the National Institutes for Historically-UnderservedStudents and addressed a national audience to confront any notion that girls carry any deficit at all.  

(2020) When I was a child of eleven, the words “Black Lives Matter” were painted in 35-foot-tall yellow capital letters on 16th Street North West in Washington, DC.

(2021) When I was a child of twelve, I published a chapter titled “Black Girl Magic is a Glorious Gift” in a scholarly book titled Strong Black Girls.  When I was a child of twelve, I became a reporter for New Moon Girls Magazine, a preteen feminist magazine written by and for girls.

(2022) When I was a child of thirteen the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade and I no longer had legal control of my own body.  When I was a child of 13, I published a poem titled “Tita likes to say” about the body shaming and fat shaming that comes to girls like me from their own family members to show that some of the attacks on women’s bodies come from the women closest to us.  We.  Must.  Do.  Better.  And when I was a child of 13, I began my partnership with The National Education Association – the nation’s largest labor union – where I co-founded the “Become a Champion for Disability Rights” campaign, a campaign that seeks to reach every teacher in America to support the 7.4 million students that have disabilities in America’s schools.  I am one of those students.  

(2023) When I was a child of fourteen, I published a chapter on Black Feminism in a scholarly book titled Young Global Changemakers for a Feminist Future.  And my fierce activism was featured in a global fashion magazine titled Mission Magazine. That same year I made a PSA to support the organization Justice for Migrant Women, an organization thatfights sexual harassment and sexual violence against migrant women because, as Audre Lorde said, “I am not free while any women is unfree.”  At the age of 14 I became a writer for The Feminist Focus Blog, the official blog of Girls Learn International. When I was a child of 14, I won the first of two awards from The Abolitionist Teachers Network for my work in confronting ableism in schools.  And when I was a child of 14, I was honored to become the youngest politician in the history of the city of Long Beach when Mayor Rex Richardson appointed me to the inaugural Commission for Women and Girls.

(2024) When I was a child of 15, I presented my scholarly chapter titled “How I Built Myself into a Black Girl Scholar” at my first international conference on Gender and Education in Australia. At 15, I gave an address to 100 middle school girls in Long Beach and told them that “Girls are Limitless.”  Today, as a child of fifteen, I am witness that the Black Lives Matter Mural on 16th Street in Washington, DC has been slated to be painted over. I, on the other hand, just delivered a poem city-wide in Black History Month titled “I am Bold, Black, and Brilliant.” 

(2025) I am part of a generation that continues to work to bring the women’s movement forward as we stand on the shoulders of our great-grandmothers, our grandmothers, and our mothers.

Thank you for letting me say a few words. Here we are in this political moment.  It’s dangerous.  It’s unbelievable.  It’s urgent.  I am two-and-a-half years away from voting.  I cannot wait until the next election! And I know that everyone my age feels the same way.  

We are educated.  

We are nuanced.  

We are fearless.  

We are ready.

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