Priyanka Chopra Jonas and her friend, Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle joined the Girl Up Leadership Summit. The two icons delivered their addresses to fans and followers through a video call at the virtual summit where they spoke about the importance of strong female leadership, female representation and realising one’s privileges.
Priyanka talked about how ‘opportunity is not fairly distributed’. She also spoke about resilience and leadership and the need to rise above our circumstances and the cards that are dealt to us. She said, “By virtue of being here you are a leader and you have the courage to invest in yourself. That means you have the courage to pave your own path, you have the courage to take ownership of your own destiny and the drive to make a difference.” She said, “The women who came before us fought for our right to vote and to work - today we don’t even think about it! Now it’s our turn to do the same for future girls. You don’t need millions of followers on social media to make a difference. All you need is heart, drive, and commitment. No act is too small. No age is too young.”
It has been a great privilege to be your @GirlUp champion for all these years. Thank you for having me with you live today. If there is any takeaway from today, it should be... pic.twitter.com/YW9RD0Tawj
— PRIYANKA (@priyankachopra) July 14, 2020
Priyanka also spoke about the challenges face by the refugees during the Covid-19 pandemic. She said, “To recognize that even social distancing is a privilege --because people living in extreme poverty and refugees sheltering in makeshift tents, don’t have the luxury of staying six feet apart.”
On the other hand, Meghan spoke about the naysayers and the negative voices that can be ‘painfully loud’. She said, “There will always be negative voices and sometimes those voices can appear to be outsized, and sometimes they can appear to be painfully loud. You can and will use your own voices to drown out the noise. Because that’s what it is—just noise.”
She also spoke highly of the young girls who organised the summit and said, “Your generation is often referred to as digital natives, and you understand that our online world has the power to affirm and support as much as it does to harm. We are not meant to be breaking each other down; we are meant to be building each other up. So use your voice both on-and-offline to do just that – build each other up, support each other. ... Your voices are those of truth. And hope. And your voices can and should be much louder.”
(Source: Twitter/YouTube)
