Profile Of A Young Activist: Shelby Knox
January, 2009
The Education of Shelby Knox is a groundbreaking must-see film for any young female activist. The film follows Shelby Knox, a Texas teenager advocating for sex-education in her high school, from sophomore to senior year. Shelby comes from Lubbock, a town with one of the highest teenage pregnancy and STD rates in the country. The school sex-education policy is abstinence only, something that clearly isn’t working. Shelby, a devout Christian and member of a conservative Republican southern family when the film begins, takes a vow of abstinence until marriage. However, this doesn’t stop her from spearheading one of the most controversial campaigns Lubbock, Texas has seen.
“If I see something wrong, I’m going to change it,” Shelby declares to the head of the party opposing her campaign for sex-education in Lubbock County High School. She is fifteen, and sits opposite the middle aged man scowling back at her. One thing that quickly becomes clear about Shelby is her dedication, determination, plain old stubbornness, and courage to stand her ground. The film shows her transition from fifteen-year-old, Christian, conservative daughter, to rebellious, uninhibited activist. “I was the perfect child,” Shelby says in the documentary. “That was before I started noticing things.” At the start of the film, Shelby joins the Lubbock County Student Youth Commission, and begins her campaign for sex-education in her high school. As the story progresses, Shelby defies her parents, pastor, and friends, to fight for a cause she believes in, and the viewer witnesses not just an activist advocating for a cause, but one young woman’s journey from teen to inspirational leader.
Now, Shelby is twenty-two and resides in New York City, where she has worked closely with feminist and women’s rights activist, Gloria Steinem. She is also running girl’s leadership and activist workshops at the Girls Leadership Institute (GLI) in the Berkshires this summer. I met with her to discuss her experience as a young female activist in her community, views on the 2008 presidential campaign, plans for her workshops this summer, and ideas about getting girls involved in activism, as well as what’s keeping them out of it.
Where you always so spunky? Your speaking skills really develop in the movie, and we see you transform into the activist you are now. In the documentary you say, “I’m kind of scary to tangle with.” In one scene, your parents wonder how you ended up this way.
SK: (laughing) I know! I was always a performer and a singer, and that helped, but I never thought of myself as an activist.
When did you make that transition from girl to activist?
SK: When I realized no one was going to use my voice for me. None of them really knew what was going on in young people’s eyes, so I had to do something. I realized no one was going to tell my story for me. Even after the initial campaign for sex education in my school, I still didn’t see myself as an activist.
When do you think that changed?
SK: It was after the movie, when I traveled around hearing other people’s stories that I realized I was an activist.
Why do you think it took you so long to identify as an activist? In your opinion, why do so few girls think of themselves as activists?
SK: Girls have a lack of role models. Hillary Clinton changed that. I wanted to run for president at nine or ten, but the women where I’m from don’t do things like that. The mothers, like mine, are stay-at-home moms.
Your parents play a big part in the documentary, and it seems like they differ from you in their opinion about what you’re doing for sex education. What was it like living with them while you were advocating for your cause?
SK: I always wished for stage parents, parents who would be ambitious for me. In my family, I was the first person to go to college. It was a big leap for them and for me. I couldn’t have made the jump from girl to activist without older women as role models. The two women who made the film did this for me.
Where there any other women who played a major part in your life as a teenager?
SK: I had a government teacher who challenged me more than anyone else. She was very tough on me in that way, but she made me realize I had to not just be a young activist, I had to be able to articulate what I believed in. I have given speeches that were bad, that I knew were bad, but the crowd cheered for me anyway, because I was so young. This teacher toughened me up and I started to feel a responsibility toward my cause.
I know you were active in the 2008 election, what types of things were you involved in?
SK: Well, I was a big Hillary person, so I campaigned for her in Washington state and my hometown in Texas. I also worked closely with Gloria Steinem during the campaign. Gloria’s op-ed was a very formative experience. We were also the ones who came up with the buttons, “Hillary’s for Obama, and so am I.”
What was it like campaigning for Hillary Clinton in Lubbock? What kind of responses did you get?
SK: I campaigned alone in Texas. In Lubbock, Hillary was hated, but not as much as Barack Obama. They’re more racist than they are sexist, but I still heard a lot of, “Fuck that Bitch!” and things like that.
How did you feel as a young woman activist campaigning for Hillary?
SK: I felt as a young woman, invisible during the campaign. They never mentioned young women who were Hillary supporters. The media, the press always focused on what they thought Hillary’s supporters were, these older white women. It made me feel invisible.
I’ve heard you’ll be teaching an alumni program at the Girls Leadership Institute this summer for girls who attended last year’s session. What should we expect from your workshops?
SK: The workshops will focus a lot on skill development and skill discovery. The first few sessions will be reconnecting, but from there we’ll move forward into activism. The idea is to use the skills the girls developed in the first session. You’ll need to understand what your story is, your community, and how your story can impact that. At the end, the girls should have some idea of what they want to change when they get back to their communities.
What aspects of activism will be talked about in the workshops?
SK: A very important part of activism is publicizing. We’ll talk about how to use youtube and facebook, so that they can be most effective. I’ve been thinking a lot about blogging, zines, and other forms of networking and publicizing. I want every single girl to be in touch with her own story and in that way, she can be an activist. Everyone has different ways of using their voice and telling their story. So, we’ll talk about public speaking, the spoken word, and performance art. The girls will work on finding out how they can best use their voices.
What’s the most important part of being a female activist?
SK: It is important for every single woman to use her voice.
Home - Book Reviews - Interviews - Links - About Barbara