Teen Girls Change the Debate (The Presidential Debate, That Is)

Earlier this month, we told you about  New Jersey teens Emma Axelrod, Sammi Siegel and Elena Tsemberis who started a  Change.org petition asking that a woman moderate one of the three planned presidential debates between President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney.

Well, guess what?

On Monday, “it was announced that the moderators for this year’s presidential and vice-presidential debates will be evenly divided between male and female journalists,” according to an article in the Huffington Post.

This is historic! A woman has not been selected to moderate a debate since 1992! And these New Jersey activists had a lot to do with making it happen.

But they are not the only girls using the power of the petition to create real change. In July, Seventeen Magazine offered a treaty to girls after middle-school student Julia Bluhm collected signatures asking the teen mag editors to promise to stop airbrushing. And in May, another teen successfully petitioned the MPAA to change the rating on the movie Bully so that more young people could see the documentary.

So hurray to Emma, Sammi and Elena. And hurray for girls everywhere who are speaking up and using their collective power to make the world a healthier and happier place.

If you could petition to make one big change in the world, what would you choose?