Young Ambassador Reflections on the Impact of the 2025 #ThisLittleGirlIsMe Campaign

By Krisana Manglani

Krisana sharing the #ThisLittleGirlIsMe School Challenge with her peers at an all-school meeting.

Inspiration can truly be found anywhere—especially in communities where women empowerment is paramount to fostering unity, like at my school in New Jersey. My name is Krisana, and I am a Young Ambassador for Inspiring Girls USA. As part of the organization’s #ThisLittleGirlIsMe campaign, an initiative designed to help further our mission of connecting young girls with women role models, I presented a very important message to my own school: that role models don’t necessarily have to be famous or globally known; they just have to have an impact on who you are.

In an effort to prove this, I reached out to over 30 teachers in my school community, asking for them to send me a baby picture, an aspiration of theirs when they were younger, and advice they would give to their past self. Then, in collaboration with the three leaders of the Girls Learning And Making a Difference (GLAM’D) club, I compiled the information into a slideshow to present it to the entire high school, an audience of 325 teenage girls.

As a student at an all-girls school, I am incredibly familiar with the concept of women empowerment, and have been taught to embrace leadership and promote myself in systems where women have historically been unable to do so. However, it was through the campaign that I saw Inspiring Girls's mission turn from theory to practice. As the advice from teachers appeared more and more applicable to our own lives, I observed the collective realization of my audience: that role models surround us and, although it can sometimes take a presentation and a guessing game to realize it, it is essential to rely on them for support. 

And this effect can even be mutual, in that young girls can inspire women to empower themselves and others, working towards a sustainable future by combating gender stereotypes. After the presentation took place, one of the teachers who had participated reached out to me, asking if she could have the slide deck to reintroduce to a committee of teachers who were planning outreach events for Women’s History Month. Through the work that Inspiring Girls USA encouraged me to conduct, I was able to reach an even further audience than teenage girls, extending our messaging to adults in our community, too.

Ultimately, Inspiring Girls’s #ThisLittleGirlIsMe campaign redefined my—and, undoubtedly, others’—understanding of what empowerment and mentorship truly look like. Change doesn’t always have to be large-scale, inspired by distant, unfamiliar figures. Instead, we create change, like breaking down these stereotypes to raise the aspirations of women, young and old, through connection within communities, realizing that our most valuable support systems may be closer than we think.