<\/p>\n
It all starts with the girls. That\u2019s the message of a video, called \u201cIt Only Takes a Girl,\u201d produced by Zoe Keating on the website Upworthy. The video invites the viewer to stop and think about the mostly forgotten 600 million girls in developing countries around the world\u2014one in seven of whom is forced before the age of fifteen to marry an older man and lives a life devoid of education or opportunity. If the topic sounds depressing, it is. But the video is anything but depressing. It\u2019s inspiring and clever and engaging (thanks, in no small part, to a young Bobby Dylan\u2014watch it, and you\u2019ll see what I mean)<\/p>\n
Upworthy, an online aggregator of videos, was founded by Peter Koechley, former managing editor of The Onion; Eli Pariser, board president of MoveOn.org; and Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook. Upworthy has been described as \u201csocial media with a mission.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how the worthy folks over at Upworthy describe their goals themselves.<\/p>\n
\nWe\u2019re a mission-driven media company. We\u2019re not a newspaper\u2014we\u2019d rather speak truth than appear unbiased. And we\u2019re not a political campaign \u2013 we\u2019re more interested in the powerless versus the powerful than in Democrats versus Republicans.<\/p>\n
But we do have a point of view. We\u2019re pro-gay-marriage, and we\u2019re anti-child-poverty. We think the media is horrible to women, we think climate change is real, and we think the government has a lot to learn from the Internet about efficiency, disruption, and effectiveness.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
If you\u2019re new to Upworthy\u2019s carefully curated collection of message-driven videos or even if you\u2019ve visited the site before, watch this moving example. If you\u2019re a woman, a sister, a mother, a grandmother, or an aunt, it might just get you going in the morning with a new sense of possibility.<\/p>\n