Reshma Saujani's Speech 'Teach Girls Bravery, Not Perfection'

Teaching Bravery
Reshma Saujani presented an informative speech for a TED Talk titled “Teach girls bravery, not perfection.” Reshma Saujani is an Indian woman who decide to run for congress when she was thirty-three even though the odds were against her. Reshma Saujani did not win the vote but the risk she took inspired her speech and her coding organization. Reshma Saujani believes that girls are scared to take risks. In fact, the purpose of her speech is to raise awareness about how girls are being taught perfection instead of bravery. She believes since girls are taught that perfection is important they will only attempt things they know they can succeed at. Reshma Saujani’s speech is very relevant to her audience, easy to understand, …show more content…
She wanted everyone especially parents, teachers, family, and mentors to realize what the idea of perfection does to a girl’s self-esteem. Stories and facts were shared to appeal to the younger and older class and to business. She shared a story about a sixteen-year-old writing code to help detect cancer to appeal to the younger generations. She shared stories of girls being scared to fail so they would not try at all. Also, stories about girls who believed that the problems were their selves not the code. These stories reach out to the older generations because no one wants their daughters, nieces, granddaughters, or friends to feel like they cannot succeed. At the end of Reshma Saujani’s speech she presents statistics explaining how women who are brave can effect businesses. Her main example was that “women use the internet six hundred percent more than men” (Reshma …show more content…
She had a balance between stories and facts. Her speech outline was a story followed by a fact and then she would explain why the story and fact was relevant. Her stories also had a balance between stories about herself and stories about other girls scared to take risk. She started with a story about her running for congress but she then told stories about other girls coding. The girls she was teaching to code have accomplished great things like detecting cancer and creating a game called tampon run. She also used other people to back up her ideas. She refers to Carol Dweck who found “that bright girls were quick to give up. The higher the IQ, the more likely they were to give up” (Reshma Saujani). Reshma Saujani used many facts, stories, and other details to get the point across that girls should be taught bravery instead of