After countless failures and successes, pushing her limit, and generating grit, Grace Chenxin Liu would like to share her journey of how a small idea, coming from fencing turned her into a researcher and advocate.
When Grace was 8, “meek, introverted, and insecure” could all be used to describe her. But now, she is ambitious, confident, and most importantly, she believes in herself. She has been recognized as a global top youth advocate and changemaker for gender equality and sustainable development and has been invited to be one of the selected few highlighted speakers at many international, national, and local conferences/events, which has inspired many girls/women and students across six continents and from 100+ countries. She is a teenage researcher with her sole-authored paper accepted by a peer-reviewed journal and the founder of a global alliance to advocate for girls and women’s empowerment.
How could this happen? Grace explains how she turned fencing into a self-initiated research project. She talks about her experience, the challenges she faced, and the lessons she learned while completing her daunting research project. When she was starting out, she yearned for role models like independent teenage researchers and advocates at her age. However, there wasn’t a lot of information, resources, or support available. So, she ends by encouraging publicity and support for teen researchers.
Audience takeaways: With every loss, there is a win! Change your mindset and amazing things will happen!