At the young age of 10, Alice Paul Tapper already has two major accomplishments under her belt: her own Girls Scouts badge and an op-ed in the New York Times. 

Named for the women’s suffragist Alice Paul, Tapper has taken on more than just the name. Despite her youth, she has that same drive to fight for gender equality.

After going on a field trip last year, Tapper said she noticed “that all the boys stood in the front and raised their hands while most of the girls politely stayed in the back and were quiet.”

“It made me upset,” she wrote in the New York Times.

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“I told my mom that I thought girls weren’t raising their hands because they were afraid that the answer was going to be wrong and that they would be embarrassed,” the fifth-grader wrote. “I also think they were being quiet because the boys already had the teacher’s attention, and they worried they might not be able to get it.”

The two decided to use the experience to make positive change.

Tapper shared her observation with her Girl Scout troop and suggested that they create a patch — which Girl Scouts earn for participating in events and activities — “that would encourage girls to raise their hands in class and be more confident about using [their] voices.”

They decided to call it the “Raise Your Hand” patch.

To get the patch — which is now available to girls who earn it across the US — “a scout needs to pledge to raise her hand in class and recruit at least three other girls who promise to do the same,” Tapper wrote.

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A study published earlier this year found that girls begin internalizing gender stereotypes as early as age 6 or 7, including the belief that men are “inherently smarter and more talented than women.” And studies have also shown that men tend to act more confidently when answering questions they are uncertain about, whereas women tend to hesitate in their response, the Huffington Post reported.

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“People say girls have to be 90 percent confident before we raise our hands, but boys just raise their hands. I tell girls that we should take the risk and try anyway, just like the boys do,” Tapper urged in her op-ed. “If the answer is wrong, it’s not the end of the world. It’s not like answering a trivia question to win a million dollars on live TV.”

Tapper’s name and drive don’t just come from her famous namesake, but from her parents.

“On their first date, when my mom found out that my dad’s middle name was Paul, she instantly knew that if she married my dad and had a baby girl she would call me Alice Paul,” Tapper, daughter of journalist Jake Tapper, wrote.

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In fact, it was her father’s proud-dad Tweet about her patch that got Alice an invitation to write an op-ed for the New York Times, the Washington Post reported.

But Alice also said that she and her mom talk “a lot about women’s rights and how women are treated differently.”

Though she’s only 10, her tenacity in the fight for gender equality is already evident.

“Alice Paul was one of the women who led the movement for women to have the right to vote. Having Alice Paul’s name makes me feel special,” she said. “For women to be equal to men, we have to fight for it.”

She already has tons of fans and is certainly not alone in this fight.

TopicsGender EqualityWomen's RightsWomen & GirlsGirl Scouts

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This 10-Year-Old Created a New Girl Scout Badge to Give Girls Confidence

By Daniele Selby