When I proclaimed myself a feminist in middle school, I tried my best to seek out feminist peers—they had to be somewhere, right?! Alas, at the age of 12 in my tiny town, there were no feminists to be found.
Yet by high school, the term “feminism” was popping up beyond the little sidebar about women’s lib in my textbooks. Feminism was all over Tumblr and Twitter and even the social media of the mainstream: Facebook. Students and teachers alike made feminism part of the conversation. This has been a trend all over the country, as more high school feminist organizations than ever are being created. This is vital to the growth and transmittance of feminism to the younger generation: We’ve got to keep it rolling!
High school senior Caitlyn Cannon showed a true understanding of feminism with her awesome senior yearbook quote, made viral via Buzzfeed this past week. “I need feminism,” she writes, “because I intend on marrying rich and I can’t do that if my wife and I are making .75 cents for every dollar a man makes.” Her blend of humor and disgruntlement with the state of the economy for queer women in particular brought tons of attention to the important issue of wage inequality.
We’d like to give a shout-out to Caitlyn for her outspokenness in her yearbook, and we’re so glad that this is something that went viral! She’s just one of the awesome high school feminists bravely making a stand, and we wish her all the best as she graduates high school!
Images via Big Stock Photo (@daisyon) & Twitter (@casualnosebleed)
