Meghan Markle says ‘there will always be negative voices’ that appear ‘painfully loud’ in UN speech

‘We are not meant to be breaking each other down; we are meant to be building each other up,’ Duchess of Sussex says in keynote speech for Girl Up Leadership Summit

The Duchess of Sussex has spoken of the importance of “drowning out the negative voices” in a speech delivered to young girls at the 2020 Girl Up Leadership Summit.

A decade ago, the UN Foundation founded Girl Up, an initiative created to support UN agencies focusing on adolescent girls.

This year, the Girl Up Leadership Summit is being streamed online for nearly 40,000 attendees from 172 countries who range in age from 13 to 22.

On the second day of the event, which is taking place from 13 to 15 July, Meghan Markle delivered a keynote speech, in which she implored young girls to use their voices to speak out against injustice and join in the conversation on topics including racial justice, mental wellbeing and climate change.

The former UN Women speaker told her young audience that while “there will always be negative voices and sometimes those voices can appear to be outsized, and sometimes they can appear to be painfully loud”.

However, “you can and will use your own voices to drown out the noise”, she stated, emphasising that the voices of young girls “can and should be much louder”.

The duchess, who recently used her platform to shine a spotlight on racism, online hate speech and mental health, began her keynote speech by explaining that she recently had the opportunity to speak to the 2020 graduating class of her former all-girls high school in Los Angeles.

“I said that they shouldn’t see their graduation as an ending, but rather the beginning,” she said. “The beginning of a journey where they can harness their work, values, and skills – all the skills they’ve learned – to rebuild the world around them.”

The Duchess of Sussex stated that while many of her audience will have likely “spent years embodying – and yes, even enacting – the change you’d like to see in the world”, the high school graduates that she spoke to and millions of young women across the globe all have the same opportunity to make a difference in the world in future.

“This is a humanity that desperately needs you. To push it, to push us, forcefully in a more inclusive, more just, and more empathetic direction,” the 38-year-old said.

“To not only frame the debate, but be in charge of the debate – on racial justice, gender, climate change, mental health and wellbeing, on civic engagement, on public service, on so much more. That’s the work you’re already out there doing.”

The duchess referenced some of the work members of Girl Up have been doing as of late, including organising Black Lives Matter demonstrations, “reforming the criminal justice system”, informing schools of the need for improved mental health resources for students and “leading coalitions to end gun violence”.

“You are standing up and demanding to be heard, yes, but you’re also demanding to own the conversation,” Meghan stated.

The duchess emphasised the pros and cons of the digital world that so many young people navigate on a daily basis, outlining that it “has the power to affirm and support as much as it does to harm”.

“We are not meant to be breaking each other down; we are meant to be building each other up,” she affirmed. “So use your voice both on-and-offline to do just that – build each other up, support each other.”

The Duchess of Sussex explained that while many members of the Girl Up summit audience will have likely “already done so much and made so many people’s lives better”, the current climate of the world “asks all of us to do more”.

“Believing in true equality is not enough – it’s going to take more than belief, we have to work for it every day; even when it’s hard and even when it makes others feel uneasy,” she said.

“We have to speak up for ourselves and we have to speak out for others who struggle to be heard.”

Meghan acknowledged that it’s not always easy to know what the right course of action is to take, an uncertainty that “paralyses us and stops us from being brave and being bold”.

“But don’t underestimate that you have some of the answers. Don’t underestimate your ability to push through the fear,” she said.

“You have, rooted in your convictions, the ability to craft a world that you know is just and kind. Your gut will tell you what’s right and what’s wrong; what’s fair and unfair. The hardest part – and it was the hardest part for me – is to chase your convictions with action.”

While encouraging the participants of the Girl Up Leadership Summit to take action, the duchess added that it can be “easy to get overwhelmed” when assessing the issues the world is currently facing.

“So be where you are in the moment. The growth and change you’re pursuing might not feel like anything day-to-day, but when you look back, I promise you’ll see it all adds up,” she said.

Meghan is not the only high-profile female role model to have made an appearance at the Girl Up Leadership Summit.

Former US first lady Michelle Obama was also in attendance, delivering a video message in which she said that when girls are given the opportunity to learn, “we give them the opportunity to fulfill their potential”.