We Must Acknowledge That We Are Not Invincible and We Must Educate Ourselves and Others
By Nicole, Member, Young Women of Color Leadership Council, and Online
Peer Educator with MySistahs.org, Advocates for
Youth
 Hi everybody!!! My name is Nicole. I am a 23-year-old African American woman born and raised in Georgia. I am a recent graduate of Spelman College where I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology.
My activities in college have enabled me to find my passion: helping others. As a sophomore in college I became interested in learning more about sexual reproductive health issues, HIV/AIDS prevention, and peer education while being forced to do community service as a requirement for my school. I became a volunteer at the first-ever SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights Conference. It brought together women of color activists, providers, policymakers, and allies to develop strategies for improving the reproductive health of women of color in the United States. My job included tape recording some of the many sessions. My first session was entitled “HIV/AIDS and Young Women of Color”. This is where I first found out about Advocates for Youth, as well as the Young Women of Color Leadership Council and MySistahs.org, where I am an online peer educator. Meeting these women and listening to so many women of color speak about the areas of sexual health and reproductive freedom piqued my interest in learning as much as I could and to find more opportunities to get involved and to become an activist in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Along with working with Advocates for Youth for the YWOCLC and MySistahs.org, I also work with Helping Our Teen Girls in Real Life Situations, Inc. (HOTGIRLS), an organization that helps young black teen girls navigate through the sexual, reproductive, and social situations they face by providing health, media literacy, and social justice education programming inspired by hip hop culture. Working with this organization has really helped get an idea of how a budding grassroots non-profit works from the ground up. I am also a member of the Young Women’s Leadership Council, a project with The Pro-Choice Public Education Project (PEP). I have the opportunity to reach out to others through events, workshops, public speaking, writing articles and blogs, and creating new outreach materials to grassroots and national networks to educate young women on their sexual and reproductive rights. My interest in public health issues has encouraged me to one day earn a Masters degree in public health (or maybe even a Ph.D.) with a focus on health behavior and education as well as public policy. I would also like to open a nonprofit organization for disadvantaged young black women and girls to mold them into leaders and activists for HIV/STI education and prevention, reproductive rights, fighting gender-based violence, body image, and improving the images of black women in hip hop culture.
I became an HIV activist because young people of color, especially young women of color, represent a disproportionate percentage of new HIV infections each year when we definitely do not have to. My goal is to do whatever I can to help raise personal and social awareness of HIV and AIDS among my peers and younger people to advocate for our access to information and skills to prevent HIV infection. We as young people sometimes believe that we are invincible. We get caught up in activities that can endanger our lives and the lives of others, naively believing that nothing bad can happen to us. We all must come to terms to the fact that we are not invincible and then make moves to educate ourselves and others.
My purpose in joining the Young Women of Color Leadership Council is to link forces with Advocates for Youth and to work with these young women/activists with like-minded passion and concern for today’s young women in order to help spread the word about HIV/STIs prevention and how we can better protect ourselves. I just want to get out into the community, to educate young women of color about their sexual and reproductive rights, show them how to better protect ourselves, and feel empowered to make healthier lifestyle choices.
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