Celebrate International Day of the Girl with PEOPLE's Girls Changing the World in 2024 (Exclusive) (2025)

Table of Contents

Maya Mor, 19 Brooke Friedman, 19, & JoJo Friedman, 16 Legacy Jackson, 15 Naya Ellis, 15 Arya Gurumukhi, 16 Charlotte Rosario, 17 Keegan Lee, 19

In honor of International Day of the Girl, PEOPLE is highlighting the powerful work that eight young women are doing in their own backyards — and the ripple effect it's having far and wide.

Read more about their important work below.

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Maya Mor, 19

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Empowering Youth for the Long Run

As a lifelong athlete, Maya Mor believes sports can be a powerful tool for social change. The Minnetonka, Minn., native is putting that theory into practice with Girls Run Global, the nonprofit she launched last spring during a gap year before joining Georgetown University’s cross-country and track teams. Mor traveled to the SEGA Girls’ Secondary School in Morogoro, Tanzania, to mentor 70 teens from vulnerable backgrounds, teaching them life skills and promoting confidence, teamwork and leadership through running. “These skills can help them overcome the significant barriers they’re facing,” says Mor, who provides all essential gear through partner support and has plans to expand to other schools in East Africa. “Once I get a big idea in my head . . . I typically run with it.”

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Brooke Friedman, 19, & JoJo Friedman, 16

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Providing a Boutique Experience for Teens in Need

A pandemic closet clean-out inspired sisters Brooke and JoJo Friedman to think about the young women who might receive their brimming trash bags filled with hand-me-downs. “We thought, ‘What does it mean if these girls get our clothes but don’t even like them?’ ” says Brooke, a freshman at the University of Michigan. In June 2022 they launched the nonprofit SheStyles, which has hosted curated pop-up “boutiques” — 10 so far — at which teens are paired with “SheStylists” (the sisters and high school volunteers) to select new and gently used donated items that suit their tastes. To date 700 underserved girls in the Los Angeles area have left SheStyles events with custom shopping bags full of items they love. Says JoJo, an 11th grader: “It gives them confidence to pick out their own clothes.”

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Legacy Jackson, 15

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Leading With Kindness — And Living Up to Her Name

Legacy Jackson grew up volunteering with her mother in their St. Louis community and one day asked a simple yet striking question: “Where are the kids?” In 2016, at age 7, Jackson launched Little Legacies, a nonprofit focused on creating fun community-service acts specifically for children. Recent projects include renovating a play space at a homeless shelter, an ice-skating party/winter clothing drive and a princess party for local at-risk girls. “When you have fun, it makes you want to come back and do it again,” says Jackson. “[The youth volunteers] are both giving and receiving something.”

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Naya Ellis, 15

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Designing Affordable Tech to Predict Strokes

When Naya Ellis saw the debilitating effects a stroke had on her grandmother, she realized the importance of immediate action. “If you could catch it before it happens,” says the New Orleans 10th grader and STEM NOLA fellow, “it could change lives.” Her solution: WingItt, a smartwatch design that monitors heart rate, oxygen levels and even changes in speech, alerting medical professionals and family members to abnormalities. The tech, which is about to enter the prototyping phase, will differ from similar devices already on the market by what it won’t include — namely extra functionality that older wearers don’t need—making it more user- and budget-friendly. “I’m making [WingItt] to help lower-income people,” Ellis says. “It won’t be for everybody. But the people it can help? That’s what matters.”

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Arya Gurumukhi, 16

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Creating Renewable Energy For Remote Communities

In 2021, during the devastating winter storms in Texas, Arya Gurumukhi and her family huddled in a frigid apartment for almost a week with no power. “It really hit me how vulnerable our energy sources are,” says the 11th grader from Sachse. Inspired, she began reading voraciously and communicating with university researchers to help create a more efficient form of Bionic Leaf, a solar-powered device that mimics photosynthesis to create fuel from water, sunlight and bacteria. Gurumukhi, who recently won a 2024 Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes, has worked alongside nonprofits and NGOs to distribute her prototype —which she offers free of charge — to 15 rural communities in Uganda, who successfully use it to power lamps and motors. “It makes me feel really good that I’m seeing my project impact people in real time,” she says.

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Charlotte Rosario, 17

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Promoting Philanthropy Through Photography

When Charlotte Rosario was 12, her father died by suicide, just days before the COVID-19 lockdown began. Shattered, she found solace in her family’s old Nikon D60 camera, capturing street scenes and friends on socially distanced photo shoots. “It was an important part of the healing process,” says the San Mateo, Calif., resident. Channeling grief into action led Rosario to launch the Community Photobooth, a network of teen photographers who shoot weddings, bar mitzvahs and other events, donating their pay to charitable organizations. To date, they’ve raised $45,000 to support a Santa Cruz food bank, and helped to provide mental health resources in local schools, buy protective gear for photographers in war-torn Ukraine and more. “It warms my heart to know there are other young people who want to use their love for photography to do good,” says Rosario, who won a 2024 Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes. “It gives me a lot of hope.”

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Keegan Lee, 19

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Challenging Kids to Log Off for Mental Health

A few years ago, when faced with the reality that her SnapChat, TikTok and Instagram habits had become “all-consuming,” Keegan Lee did the seemingly impossible: She put down her phone. “I quit for a week and experienced a lot of beautiful things,” recalls the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill sophomore, who later completed a two-month hiatus. “I developed this higher tolerance for boredom. I could sit and be still once I resisted the urge to go online.” Today Lee educates middle and high school students about the negatives (and positives) of social media and, as a youth council member of the nonprofit Mental Health America, helps conduct research on building a “more humane digital world.” She’s even created a course for parents and educators to teach healthy habits to children. “Although we can have meaningful relationships online, it’s the in-person, physical and tangible interactions that bring the most satisfaction,” she says.