Learn how you can change the world with Wonder Girls: Changing Our World

Global Fund for Women believes that girls and young women are powerful change-makers who are using their creativity and determination to build the world they want to see. Acclaimed author-photographer Paola Gianturco shares this belief. In her new book, Wonder Girls: Changing Our World, Paola and her 12-year-old granddaughter Alex Sangster highlight incredible girl activists from across the globe. Through inspirational stories and moving images, we see that girls are ending child and early marriage, protecting the planet, and ensuring education for all. Girls are changing the world and it’s critical that we support them any way that we can.

About Wonder Girls: Changing our World

Wonder Girls features 15 groups of girls who are tackling challenges in 13 countries in the Americas, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Oceania. Paola Gianturco and her 12-year-old granddaughter co-author, Alex Sangster, interviewed and photographed 102 girls, each of whom tells her own story in her own words. Global Fund for Women President & CEO Dr. Musimbi Kanyoro contributed the foreword for the book and one hundred percent of the authors’ royalties from Wonder Girls: Changing Our World go to Global Fund for Women. The book can be ordered here and will also be available after October 11, 2017 at independent bookstores.

Wonder Girls: Changing Our World Book Tour

Join author-photographer Paola Gianturco as she tours the U.S. sharing inspiring images and stories from her new book. See below for key dates and events featuring Global Fund for Women staff and board.

WASHINGTON DC

October 9, 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Event: Paola Gianturco will present stories from Wonder Girls: Changing Our World. Remarks by Global Fund for Women Board Member Laurie Emrich.

Location: Busboys and Poets, 2021 Fourteenth Street NW (at V), Washington DC 20009

Details:  Cosponsored by Women Thrive, School Girls Unite, and Global Fund for Women. Ticket information here. 

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

October 11, 6:30 PM

Event: Celebration of International Day of the Girl featuring a panel with author-photographer Paola Gianturco, Global Fund for Women COO Clare Winterton, and more.

Location: 312 Sutter Street, Suite 200, San Francisco, California

Details: Co-sponsored by The World Affairs Council, Global Fund for Women, Rise Up, and One World Children’s Fund. Ticket information here

MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA

October 16, 7:30 PM

Event: Paola Gianturco in conversation with Dr. Musimbi Kanyoro, Global Fund for Women President & CEO.

Location: Kepler’s Books, 1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, California

Details: Open to the public. Sponsored by the Kepler’s Literary Foundation. Pre-registration Required

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

October 26, 5:00 PM

Event: Paola Gianturco will present stories from Wonder Girls: Changing Our World. Remarks by Fund for Women Head of Advocacy & Executive Producer Catherine King.

Location: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Visitor Center, 440 Fifth Avenue North, Seattle 98109.

Details: Co-sponsored by the Gates Foundation, the World Affairs Council-Seattle; Global Fund for Women, The Channel Foundation, and Elliott Bay Book Company. More Details

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

February 7, 6:00 PM

Event: Paola Gianturco will present stories from Wonder Girls: Changing Our World. Followed by a discussion with Paola, Lynn Harris of Breakthrough, and other special guests.

Location: Google NYC – 111 8th Avenue (between 15th and 16th Streets), New York, NY 10011

Details: Open to the public. Hosted by Google NYC. More Details

To see other events in your area, please visit the Wonder Girls: Changing Our World website.

About the Authors

Paola Gianturco, author-photographer, has documented women’s issues in 62 countries. powerHouse Books has published her six titles. Paola’s images have been exhibited at the United Nations, UNESCO, The Field Museum/ Chicago, and more. She lectures internationally, presented a TED talk in Dubai, and has been a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN, NPR, and Voice of America programs among others. Paola serves on the advisory boards of three nonprofits: Rise Up, Pencils for Africa, and Global Grandmothers. In 2014, Women’s e-News named her one of “21 Leaders for the 21st Century” and in 2017, the YWCA inducted her into the Marin Women’s Hall of Fame.

Alex Sangster, author-photographer, is Paola’s granddaughter. Alex is something of a “wonder girl” herself. She and her sister launched a children’s program at a global poverty conference in Mexico. After conducting FaceTime and Skype interviews with 70 activist girls in 13 countries, Alex wrote the sections of Wonder Girls: Changing Our World titled “How YOU Can Change OUR World.” Alex captured almost all of the images in the chapters about activist girls’ groups in Los Angeles and Mexico.