An Oak Park and River Forest High School senior was one of 15 teenage girls who were honored last week at a White House ceremony hosted by First Lady Jill Biden to recognize girls leading change.
The event took place on Oct. 11, the International Day of the Girl.
Anja Herrman, a 17-year-old senior at OPRF from River Forest, was honored for her work as a disability rights advocate and her work for equity and inclusion.
Herrman was honored for her grassroots disability advocacy work, including her work as a member of the Personal Protective Equipment for People with Disabilities coalition. After realizing that the needs of disabled kids were often left out of active shooter safety drills Herrman wrote a white paper through a fellowship with the Disability EmPowHer Network that highlighted the need for school plans to respond to school shootings to include specific steps to keep students with disabilities safe.
Since 2012, Herrman has served as the youngest member of the Village of River Forest’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisory group.
“It was an honor to be recognized, especially around all these other amazing young leaders,” Herrman told the Wednesday Journal in a telephone interview. “I left the event just super inspired.”
Herrman was nominated for the honor by OPRF History teacher Lisa Faulkner.
First Lady Jill Biden spoke near the beginning of the event and at the end of the event.
“Every girl can do incredible things and you’re never too young to fight for what you believe in,” Biden said, encouraging girls to continue to fight for change.
Also speaking at the event were White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre and Jennifer Klein, the director of the White House Policy Council.
Jean-Pierre talked about the importance of being fearless, which she defined not as lacking fear, but facing your fears and overcoming them to act.
“Let’s be honest, as women, as young women, we need to be fearless,” Jean-Pierre said. “To strive and thrive we must be fearless. To bulldoze through the obstacles that are placed in front of us every day. And that’s doubly true for women of color, queer women, trans women, disabled women and other oppressed women who have twice as many obstacles in their way.
Herrman said that it was exciting to be on stage with and meet the First Lady, Jean-Pierre and Klein.
“It was an honor to be on stage with them and to hear their insights and words of wisdom,” Herrman said.
The honorees were brought up to the podium in pairs as the honorees introduced each other. Each honoree spoke for perhaps 30 seconds or less.
Herrman introduced Avery Turner of Colorado Springs, Colorado who was honored for her work promoting a sense of belonging for teenage children of members of the armed forces and her writing about the issue. After Herrman introduced Turner, Turner introduced Herrman.
“Anja also understands the importance of writing,” Turner said. “Her essays have given voice to her experiences as a disability rights activist and her research has spotlighted how schools can better serve students with disabilities.”
The honorees then answered a few questions from the younger girls who were in the audience.
Herrman answered a question from a girl asking for advice to girls who are unsure about how to get started making change.
“I would say, don’t think about it like you’re making change in the abstract because I think that can be intimidating,” Herrman said.
“Think of it like what do you need in your community right now. That should be step one and then how can you broaden that to reach your community as a whole. And, really, you just have to make change for the future you. Remember that making change especially at even a local, federal, state, at any level, it’s a team effort. You don’t have to do it all yourself; you can’t do it all yourself so all you should really focus on is changing your own corner.”
Herrman got a bit nervous right before it was her time to speak.
“I don’t think I was nervous until it was about two minutes before I had to start talking when I was like ‘oh no’, but I just sort of pushed through,” Herrman said. “And the nerves melt away the minute you stop taking yourself so seriously. And on the White House stage not taking yourself super seriously is hard to do so I kind of saw it as I just need to get these words across. These are my words; these are my insights for younger girls; it’s just between me and them right now. The White House can fade away into the back for a minute.”
It helped that Herrman had a few minutes of advance warning of what question she would answer so she had the outline of her response prepared.
The ceremony at the White House lasted for approximately 30 minutes.
Herrman was in Washington, DC for 24 hours. She got to go bowling with the honorees before the event and started developing friendships with them. She plans to keep in touch with her fellow honorees.
“They’re lovely, I like all of them,” Herrman said. “We are now bonded with this, like, wild experience that literally only the 15 of us have at this point so there’s certainly an active WhatsApp group chat. I’m looking forward to staying in touch with them.”
Note: This story was updated Oct. 18 to correct the spelling of Herrman’s name and to add comments from her.
