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"Hey Seventeen readers! Did you know that Thursday, October 11th was the first-ever United Nations&amp;#039; International Day of the Girl? Yes that&amp;#039;s right an entire day dedicated to celebrate being a girl! How cool is that?! Well to kick the celebration off a little early, I headed to the 10X10 global action campaign for girls&amp;#039; education launch event in New York City on Wednesday night. And let me tell you, the evening was nothing short of pretty amazing! I met inspiring women from all around the globe who have overcome many obstacles to realize their dreams. It didn&amp;#039;t matter if you were from Africa, Asia, North America, or anywhere else in the entire world \u2014 we could all agree on the fact that when a girl is educated, she can change the world! I was extremely honored to be interviewed by CNN&amp;#039;s Christiane Amanpour and share how I created my own nonprofit, The SEGway Project, to empower girls in the developing world through soccer. Each one of the special guest speakers&amp;#039; incredible stories of perseverance and strength blew me away, but I found myself most in awe of Shabana Basij-Rashik&amp;#039;s story. Growing up in Afghanistan when girls&amp;#039; education was banned under Taliban rule, Shabana had to dress as a boy and risk her life everyday for six years just to achieve her dream of getting an education \u2014 nothing was going to stop her. Now, Shabana has built the first girls&amp;#039; boarding school back in her village in Afghanistan, and guess what \u2014 she&amp;#039;s only 22 years old! I believe Shabana&amp;#039;s story shows us it doesn&amp;#039;t matter how young you are or how big the odds are stacked against you, NOTHING can get in the way of reaching your dreams!  Check out the 10X10 Girl Rising movie trailer and see how you can join the campaign to help educate girls around the globe!       "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.seventeen.com/life/a19044/ten-by-ten-event/>