Rowan Blanchard, 13-Year-Old Disney Star, Is Smarter on Feminism Than Many Adults

By Julianne Escobedo Shepherd  |  August 24, 2015 | 6:30pm
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Rowan Blanchard, the 13-year-old star of Disney Channel’s Girl Meets World, wrote a short and invigorating essay on intersectional feminism that functions as a reason to hope for our future, a very helpful instructional missive and, maybe, a lesson in the value of Tumblr.

On Blanchard’s Tumblr, a fan asked her “opinion on the term ‘white feminism,’ and how common feminism might exclude women of color and non cis/queer women.” Blanchard’s response, which she reposted on her Instagram, was a work of clear and concise intellect that showed young people are just getting it in a way that, perhaps, many of their elder contemporaries are still struggling with.

In her response, Blanchard emphasizes her personal emphasis on intersectionality, provides an excellent working definition of it, cites Kimberlé Crenshaw—the professor who first introduced the term as a way of viewing and evaluating feminism’s intricacies among various intersecting societal groups—stands up for trans rights and cites Amandla Stenberg, another teenager who should absolutely be president one day. Blanchard for her running mate?

The full essay is below. It’s worth noting that Girl Meets World is a spin-off of Boy Meets World, and Blanchard plays the main character daughter of original characters Cory and Topanga, and while its gender flip is a symbol of representational progress since the original aired in the 1990s, it has been criticized for being somewhat regressive on the feminism spectrum. After this, though, Blanchard herself may not be. The full Instagrammed essay is below.

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