At the tender age of 12, Sapphire Alexander was exposed to a heated exchange between two parents at her Port of Spain primary school. Hearing screams, and crying, her young mind could not understand what may have been happening but the sounds stayed with her to this day.

She only put a name to the experience as a teenager, three years later, in 2018, when she saw a TED Talk by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie called We Should All be Feminists. It was her first awareness of the issues women and girls face around the world.

“At the time I thought, ‘Yes! We should all be feminists. This makes so much sense!’ And it really inspired me to want to learn and understand more

“But a lot of feminism is tied up in tertiary academia, especially in the Caribbean, so there wasn’t really a space or a community that I knew of at that time for people as young as me to learn and share about these issues and to connect with other young people who share that same passion.

“I thought, ‘If it doesn’t exist, I’ll create my own.’”

Therefore, she started the blog, Caribbean Feminist.

Around that time, the case of Jason Jones vs the Attorney General, which eventually led to the repeal of the buggery law, was in progress. So she and some friends who wished to contribute, blogged on the topic.

“We thought it was an important time for young people, especially LGBTQIA+ young people in the region, so we wanted to take the time to address what that meant for the region, for young people, and for the future of those in that community.”

[caption id="attachment_926641" align="alignnone" width="715"] Sapphire Alexander plans to register Caribbean Feminist as a non-governmental organisation to raise awareness of issues affecting women and girls. - PHOTO BY SUREASH CHOLAI[/caption]

Since then, she has been expanding her knowledge by learning from the regional feminist community including activists, the UWI Institute of Gender and Development Studies, and academic papers on Caribbean feminism and issues impacting women.

She has interviewed activists throughout the Caribbean on poverty, street harassment, period poverty, Caribbean women’s history and other issues affecting herself and other young women.

And since the topics have been so relatable, many people have had a positive reaction to the blog, allowing it to grow and transform into an organisation.

Now, at 19, the youth gender activist’s interests include women’s rights, gender-based violence advocacy, LGBTQIA+ rights, access to education for women and girls, sexual health, and reproductive rights and education.

She is also a member of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust Network; a global adviser for Frida – The Young Feminist Fund, an international non-profit organisation; and a part of the Transform Education Young Feminist Coalition, a subset of the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative.

Alexander stressed that, contrary to popular stereotypes and misconceptions, feminism does not