Naomi Wadler, an elementary school student in Virginia, took to the stage at the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, DC to represent women of color impacted by gun violence.
Wadler captivated the massive audience with a speech more powerful than one would expect from an 11-year-old student.
"Me and my friend Carter led a walk-out at our elementary school on the fourteenth," Wadler explained. "We walked out for eighteen minutes, adding a minute to honor Cortland Arrington, an African-American girl who was the victim of gun violence in her school in Alabama after the Parkland shooting."
"I am here to acknowledge & represent the African-American girls whose stories don't make the front page of every national newspaper, whose stories don't lead on the evening news," she continued.
The fifth grader also put politicians on notice that she would be old enough to vote in only seven years.
"My friends and I might still be 11, and we might still be in elementary school but we know," Wadler noted. "We also know that we stand in the shadow of the Capitol, and we know that we have 7 short years until we too have the right to vote."
Watch:
"I am here to acknowledge & represent the African-American girls whose stories don't make the front page of every national newspaper, whose stories don't lead on the evening news," says Naomi Wadler, an 11-year-old from Alexandria, Va. https://t.co/jujbxM0M4i#MarchForOurLivespic.twitter.com/3lLhpHhDby
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 24, 2018
"My friends and I might still be 11, and we might still be in elementary school but we know," says Naomi Wadler. "We also know that we stand in the shadow of the Capitol, and we know that we have 7 short years until we too have the right to vote." https://t.co/jujbxM0M4ipic.twitter.com/FJTMnQzpR4
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 24, 2018