Translator: Cihan Ekmekçi Reviewer: Ellen Maloney
Wow.
Good morning.
Well, for the next few minutes,
I'm going to probably make you feel a little uncomfortable,
because we're going to talk about sex.
(Cheers) (Applause)
So how many of you can remember
having the talk with your parents or maybe a trusted adult in your life?
Hopefully it wasn't -
(Laughter)
Yeah, pretty awful, American Pie.
It probably was embarrassing.
(Laughter)
But if it went well and you can remember this,
you probably got the information you needed
to take charge of your body and take charge of your future.
So this is why I'm here today.
I want to have the talk with you,
because all of us need to make sure that today's teens,
whether they're in the United States or globally,
have the right and are empowered to decide their futures.
And that requires us all to talk about sex and reproductive health and contraception.
(Applause) (Cheers)
Thanks.
(Applause)
You've got it.
So listen, why is this important?
Well, we have the largest ever generation of young people in our history,
fully a quarter of our seven billion people
are between the ages of 10 and 24.
It's incredible.
But it's not just a matter of numbers,
it's a matter of where they live and what the opportunities they have
or don't have as a result.
So the bulk of young people today -
the majority live in those green countries,
the countries that are the poorest in our world.
In those countries that those young people are coming into their childbearing years,
and if they don't have access
to the contraception they need and deserve,
those countries will see population explosions
that will make it impossible for them to get out of poverty
in the next few decades.
The truth is we've done a really good job over the last 15 years
in helping children survive past the age of five,
but we've dropped the ball
when it comes to putting them at the table,
when they become adolescents.
And you know if you're not at the table, you're on the menu.
(Laughter)
Think about that.
So even if they're at the table, we have another problem:
We don't even speak the same language,
and I'm not talking English versus Swahili versus Arabic.
I'm talking old versus young.
So another look at the map,
the median age in the United States today is 38,
the median age in Uganda is 16,
the median age in Germany is 46,
and the median age in Yemen is 19.
You get the picture.
We have a problem.
But it's a bigger problem than that,
we don't even have the right communication skills,
because, people my age and generation learn
to talk about these issues in a very different light.
We saw it as health issues, not sexual life issues.
So we don't have the communication skills to have a conversation with the generation
that must plan its own future.
So this begs the question:
if the older generation in power
isn't talking to the younger generation out of power,
how are we meeting their needs?
And the short answer is we are not.
Now, this matters to all adolescents, boys and girls
but it particularly matters to girls
when it comes to their reproductive health and sexuality.
When you think about the challenges ahead for girls today,
it's a pretty serious situation,
and so I want to talk to you a little bit about what we have to do to move forward
and make sure that all girls have the right to plan and choose their future.
So I'm going to take you to another issue,
going back in time again to puberty -
another word that makes me slightly uncomfortable,
and it's probably because I was a girl when I went through puberty.
Have you ever thought about how different puberty is for boys and girls?
And it is.
When a boy goes through puberty, what happens?
His world opens up, he has new experiences and opportunities.
It's great.
(Laughter)
When a girl goes through puberty, what happens?
Often her life, it all too frequently collapses around her.
The people in her life become more controlling.
She's confined to the home, she doesn't go to school
and in many communities,
she's the victim of female genital mutilation or child marriage.
It's a difficult life.
A second issue that we have to look at
when we talk about the difference of boys and girls is our periods.
So you probably know
that this is the reason many girls drop out of school around the world.
There's no access to sanitation or good toilets,
so they stop going to school, but it's deeper than that.
So a non-profit we work with recently did a survey,
and asked people how different would the world be
if boys and men had periods as well as girls and women.
(Laughter)
Well, you won't be surprised to hear that what they found was
most people thought boys would probably brag about their periods,
(Laughter)
and that they would congratulate each other
on overcoming the monthly battle against nature.
(Laughter)
Sounds true, doesn't it?
But the third issue that goes to the heart
of why human sexuality and female sexuality is often denied,
and why stigma and shame and repression are still part
of our commonplace 21st century is actually much more sobering.
225 million girls and women around the world
don't want to be pregnant right now,
but aren't using contraception.
And they aren't because they don't have the information,
they don't have the access,
they don't have the choice and they don't have control.
What happens is a loss of education, a loss of income,
but even more importantly, loss of lives.
For complications due to childbirth and pregnancy
is the second leading cause of deaths for girls ages 15 to 19 globally.
And in Africa, it's the number one cause.
And actually suicide is the number one cause globally,
which is another TED talk, I'm sure.
But that's a serious problem that we can't continue to have.
But it doesn't have to be this way.
We know we can make a difference and we know that we can make a change.
So what can we do?
Well, I think there's a lot of things we can do.
We can start by changing attitudes.
It's time to treat girls and value girls as seriously as we treat and value boys.
We need to remove the stigma about all female sexuality.
Second, we can learn about what works,
and we don't have to go all the way around the world to find out.
Colorado has done an amazing job of reducing teen pregnancy
by listening to girls.
So they go into the schools where girls go.
They go online where girls live,
they find out what girls look for online,
and provide reproductive health information
when they're seeking information about STDs,
then make sure health clinics are appealing and not unfriendly for girls.
And they make sure contraceptive are affordable and that there's choice.
So those are things we could do anywhere and we should.
I want to show you the goals that have just been adopted by the UN.
And maybe you missed this,
that last September 193 nations came together at the United Nations
to set 17 goals that will help us move from poverty to prosperity.
The interesting thing about this
is that gender equality and universal access
to reproductive health and rights are in those goals.
So we need to make sure that we are moving from promises to action,
and that countries are holding to the promises that they made.
And finally, I want to come back to the topic I opened with,
which is simply that we need to talk about sex.
We need to talk about it at a macro level
so that we are shining a light on what's happening,
and we're talking about how to change it.
and we need to talk about it on a micro level,
talking to actual individual young people and girls around the world.
So a couple years ago -
and I tell you they want to talk so we've been trying to listen.
So a couple years ago, we reached out to 500 girls
to talk about what it's like to live in the poorest countries in the world.
What are their challenges and also what are their hopes and dreams?
And I have to tell you we learned that it's so important to listen,
because when we include girls, we get solutions;
when we exclude them, our problems continue.
The girls are so practical, they know what they want.
So they would say things
like ''I want my teacher to show up at school,''
or ''I want to be able to walk to school without fear of rape.''
But they were all so poignant.
A girl from Mexico said:
''I just want the information to build the family that I want,
so I don't live the way my mother had to.''
And a girl from Egypt said:
''I don't want people dictating to me what my future can be.
I want to decide.''
And a girl from Ethiopia said:
''I want everybody to know that women can do everything.''
So when we listen to girls, we see that there's a future.
They're speaking out, they're telling us what they want.
We need to help them.
But what they're hearing back from us too often is silence.
So let's elevate girls' voices.
Let's talk to them, let's talk for them,
but most importantly, let's talk with them.
So I urge you to look at your own lives and the girls in your own lives.
They may be girls like these.
They may be girls like anyone else in the world
who have a vision and power and a beauty about their lives.
And I urge you to listen and think about when was the last time you really listened
to what were their hopes, fears and dreams.
For as Eleanor Roosevelt told us:
''The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.''
Empowering girls to live out their dreams is my passion and my mission.
And I hope after this talk, you'll embrace it as yours as well.
Thank you very much.
(Applause) (Cheers)