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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Verity Babbs

A moment that changed me: I was a gobby teen who lived to win. Then I lost a contest – and found the real me

Verity Babbs head and shoulders pic - with blonde bobbed hair and red and wearing a white patterned dress
Babbs: ‘The fact that people seemed to enjoy my talk, and had laughed exactly when I had wanted them to, felt enough.’ Photograph: Beth Clarence

“I am a teenager, living in an age with war, corruption, discrimination, racism, sexism. But no one seems angry about it. People see the slight advances towards equal society as having solved our issues entirely and it just isn’t enough.”

It’s March 2015, and I’ve done it: I’ve solved inequality. Standing in the basement room of Modern Art Oxford for my regional heat of the Articulation prize public speaking competition, I truly believe that I may have just introduced this room full of parents and teachers to the concept of feminism. I’m very pleased with myself.

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