Bria Smith and Jaclyn Corin, two teens that have become prominent voices in the March For Our Lives movement, were honored Friday at TheWrap’s Power Women’s Summit in Los Angeles with the Voice of the Future Award.
Smith, who lives in inner city Milwaukee, has devoted herself to building support networks for kids and teens who live in neighborhoods marred daily by gun violence. Corin, a survivor of the Parkland High School shooting last year, helped organize the March For Our Lives movement in the days following the shooting, including arranging for several busloads full of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students and faculty to travel to Tallahassee to push the Florida State Legislature to pass gun control legislation.
“Jackie and I are honored to be an accepting an award of such eloquence and such significant value,” Smith said. “It reflects the vision generations of past women activists have been pushing for. We have an obligation to create platforms for women across the country no matter their age, color, or experience. Conversation builds bridges, and understanding helps us cross them.”
Smith and Corin will join other March For Our Lives activists at a rally in Orange County this weekend, aiming to rally voters prior to this Tuesday’s midterm elections. Corin says that their organization has registered over 50,000 people to vote.
“Over the summer, my friends and I from Parkland traveled to over 100 cities across the nation,” Corin said. “We’ve had conversations with other gun violence survivors and other community leaders, and Bria was one of the people who spoke in Milwaukee and we asked her, ‘Want to come on a bus with us?’”
Smith and Corin spoke about how personally rewarding the March For Our Lives tour has been for them, as they encourage America’s youth to make their voices heard.
“Understanding different perspectives and amplifying each voice is what creates the strongest unified front,” Smith said, with Corin adding that young women “might be historically repressed by gender classification, they can find the power within themselves to make a difference in their communities, in their country, and in their world.”