Experience a Tour of the U.S. Capitol Through the Eyes of a High School Girl
For International Day of the Girl, a few dozen girls had a very special day in Washington, D.C. They're from Communities in Schools and the Lower East Side Girls Club, both New York-based partners of Glamour's nonprofit arm, The Girl Project. And on Tuesday they were Maybelline New York's guests at Glamour's #WhenGirlsGraduate event with First Lady Michelle Obama and actress Yara Shahidi in Washington, D.C.
After spending the morning hanging with FLOTUS, Yara, and our dream best friend Rowan Blanchard, Glamour caught up with the girls about what their education means to them at some of Washington, D.C.'s most famous sites.
Katie Friedman1/8Riding in style
Because what ride is more appropriate than a school bus for a day that's all about education?
Katie Friedman2/8Showing Up for Education
A group of girls from Communities in Schools, a nonprofit that works with students one-on-one to keep kids in school, no matter what it takes. While they were waiting for their bus at the Capitol their mentor, Monique Baker, reminded them why.
"Once you have that diploma nobody can take it from you," she said to a handful of girls. "You can walk into the room with some authority because you earned it. Every hour, every minute you worked to get that diploma, you were earning it."
Katie Friedman3/8And... they're off.
4/8Aryana Thomas, 17
Aryana wants to be an attorney when she grows up. She got the idea from her grandmother, who says it's a perfect fit because Aryana "likes to argue."
She says she didn't work hard enough at the beginning of her high school career, but now she's trying harder, because she realizes how important it is. "It's the key to life," she said. "Without education you won't be able to do anything."
Katie Friedman5/8Standing Tall
A group of girls from the Lower East Side Girls Club in the National Statuary Hall. The girls are from New York City and had never been to D.C. before. They weren't super impressed by the height of the Washington Monument—they're used to skyscrapers, after all—but were definitely taken with the grandness of the Capitol and all the history that's happened there.
6/8Seriously. They were really into all the historical stuff.
Katie Friedman7/8Looking Up
The girls with their tour guide in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol Building. Fun fact: the mural on the ceiling was painted to look three-dimensional both from up close and super far away.
Katie Friedman8/8Kuniya Young, 17
Kuniya is ambitious. She's going to be an actress when she grows up—"I don't want to be, I know I will be one," she says—and she wants to go to college. She says hearing about Malala Yousafzai and other girls like her who would give anything for a good education, she's looking at school in a whole new way. "I take school pretty seriously, but now I feel like I could be taking it even more seriously," she said. "Hearing Michelle Obama talk about girls in other countries who are literally giving their lives to go to school, I got a weird feeling inside and realized I should be doing more."
