“I am consistently saddened and angered by the lack of educational opportunities that meet tens of millions of girls because of early marriage, war, migration, trafficking, forced labor, and poverty, to name but a few reasons. The results? Repeating cycles of poverty, little sustainable development for families, communities, and countries, and increased security risks felt on every level, from the personal to the national. While some girls, like my own daughter, are born into a world that rewards learning, others are barred by a beast of neglect, disparagement, exploitation, violence, even death. Simply because they are girls. In this image, blindfolds represent barriers to education, and the creature symbolizes the ways girls suffer as a result. Some, though, have ripped theirs off and are striving for a better life. If more girls aren’t able to do the same, it will be a failure of and for all.”