Name: Neve Lawson
Grade: Year 11
Age: 16 Years
School: Ulladulla High School / Aurora College
Hometown and State: Milton, New South Wales
LIFTING US UP – How can women and girls empower each other and their communities in times of uncertainty and change?
Empowerment can be done through giving teenage girls an authentic voice, empty of rhetoric or dismissal based on our age and apparent subsequent lack of knowledge. It can be achieved through supporting one’s community, friends and businesses that have faced constant blows through power outages, bushfire blazes, flooding and COVID-19, as well as the often-forgotten frustration, isolation, and depression that can come with this legion of external stressors.
I believe in these actions wholeheartedly. I am relentless in my spreading of the message that every person in the world deserves the right to voice what they feel. I also believe, though, that change can be made most powerfully when we feel healthy and loved. We, as women and girls, can build this positive basis for change, through broadcasting and radiating the ethos of pride for all we’ve overcome this year, and the abandonment of self-criticism in favour of supportive, accessible and eloquent leadership and self-acceptance.
It is human nature to overcompensate for stresses or uncertainty in our lives through living in a hyper-vigilant and chaotic state, constantly wanting more from ourselves and berating ourselves when our mental, physical and emotional function ceases to stretch further. Do you ever find that, in a constant mindset of panic and perfectionist standards, attempts to unwind are no longer effective, and nothing you attempt seems to go right? I’ve learnt these past few months that this is a sign of trying to do too much. It happens to all of us because we’re all passionate and want to create active change.
The greatest sense of empowerment is the subtlest kind. The realisation from yourself or a friend that you are allowed to feel what you feel, that you will make that deadline, and that things will eventually feel better. That you are allowed to sleep in late, be unsure of things, say no to things, take up space, have unproductive days, to feel exhausted, and to forgive yourself. To tell yourself that everybody has struggles, and that everybody deserves an extra piece of love – including yourself.
This year has been overwhelming, painful, exhausting, and confusing; but I believe leadership, in its essence, is the process of recognising the fault in a system and building positivity from it. Leadership is encompassed by seizing an opportunity to initiate a wave of positivity and reassurance. It’s having the courage to sit down at a computer, or stand up in front of an audience, not being completely sure what you’re about to say or how you’ll put into words that powerful inner passion to create change, and doing it anyway.
If this year has taught me anything, it’s to not take anything for granted. Things change so much every few days that time has lost all meaning – each day feels like a month, but months go by in what feels like a day. We can’t seem to count on anything, because each new reality we construct and adjust to could all shift without warning. Thus, we are presented with the opportunity to build a strong, constant ground in our community, one we can rely on and hold faith in. The implementation of wholehearted and dedicated leadership starts with us, as women and girls. It is through this structure that change can be created, and it is through the spreading of this message that we can feel empowered.