Young People who Rock

CNN has an ongoing series about Young People Who Rock- basically anyone under 30 who's done something incredible and makes the rest of us feel like we're lazy or not doing enough with our lives. This week's Young Person who Rocks is Adora Svitak, writer, poet, and humanitarian.

According to her site, Svitak uses her writing to reach out to kids and tries to inspire them: “Nowadays children are lacking in reading and writing skills, and they are saying things like ‘I don't like to read' or ‘ I don't want to write.' That hurts me very much.”

I too am hurt by all of this, but what's the difference between me and her? Over a decade. She's nine. While her achievements are definitely worth mentioning on their own, the reason I'm posting about her is that not only is she a published author, and "tiny literary giant," according to Diane Sawyer, but Svitak is also a nascent feminist, often "disappointed by the way girls are portrayed in books and movies." She's written feminist and gender equality themes into a few of her short stories, trying to create characters she'd want to read about herself.

After having a pretty crappy week at work, this definitely brightens my day. (It also makes me wonder what would have happened if I hadn't lost the original manuscript to Blaze, a ten page horse story I wrote in third grade.)