Why persistence matters, by Chelsea Clinton

“I’ll tell you when I first realized what it meant to persist. I was maybe four years old and in gymnastics class at my local YWCA. There was a cartwheel contest and I was determined to win. I was hurling myself around and I saw a couple of other kids were still going, so I kept going and I kept going until finally, barely able to put one hand down on the mat much less do a cartwheel, I realized everyone else had stopped. I had done the most cartwheels. I remember this rush of exhilaration and sense of pride in having seen something through. And I think that moment, which was no more than a handful of minutes in a child’s life, gave me an appreciation of why it’s important to always keep going and why persistence and resilience are such consistent traits in people who have done both great and good things.

It’s a message that I think is particularly important to give to young girls because there are so many forces telling them not to persist. Research shows that girls are more likely than boys to be told to be quiet and sit down; are less likely to be called on in schools, especially in math and science; and are more frequently complimented on their appearance than the quality of their questions or the ingenuity or creativity of their ideas. For me, it’s important to share stories of women who have persisted in different ways and in different moments in history, so girls understand you should listen to what your heart is telling you and what your spirit is driving you forward to do.

I remember when I learned about Harriet Tubman for the first time in elementary school. It was one of those moments – I couldn’t believe I didn’t know about her before. Or when I learned about Nellie Bly in college. Or as a young person who cared deeply about recycling and energy conservation and climate change, finding out about what Wangari Maathai was doing in Kenya and throughout Africa, and how she had helped create a greenbelt that can be seen from space. Or watching with my parents when Flo-Jo Florence Griffith Joyner broke the world record at the 1988 Olympics. These stories of persistence aren’t just for girls either. It’s important that boys have female role models, that boys who love soccer don’t just know about Ronaldo, they know about Sissi Lima do Amor, too.

I am blessed because I also see my mother and grandmother as embodiments of persistence. It just never occurred to my mother not to persist. My grandmother, Dorothy Rodham, was born to a teenage mother, who abandoned her twice, for the final time when she was eight. She had to go and live with her grandparents, who were quite cold, and before she turned 14, informed her she would have to move out and take care of herself. Which she did, working as a nanny all through high school. She had a life that I couldn’t imagine. But one of the things I find so remarkable is that she created a home full of love and possibility for her children, one that was just alien to her own experience. She always encouraged them and never made them feel guilty about her past. She expected them to be inspired by it. Quitting was not in her vocabulary. She was born before women had the right to vote and she lived long enough to vote for her daughter for President. That is a remarkable historical arc that I find incredibly inspiring.”

Chelsea Clinton’s new children’s book, She Persisted Around the World: 13 Women Who Changed History (Random House) is out now