Greetings,

my name is Natalia Castillo, I am a senior at UmassD and will be graduating in May! I am 21 years old and recently had my first baby, she is almost 8 months old and the cutest little thing and I’m not just saying that because she is my daughter. I lived on campus for 3 years, but once I had the baby I decided to finish my degree online and I have to say that it has been great, online classes are pretty cool. I am grateful for this resource because it has allowed me to continue my studies, which is extremely important to me. I have been living in Lawrence, MA since I was 9 years old after coming to the US from Puerto Rico, where I was born. My family is Dominican from both my mom’s and dad’s side, but my mom’s side of the family has been living in Puerto Rico for years, which explains why I was born there. I have a very strong connection to my Latina roots and absolutely love embracing it.

This is why when I was going through the different feminist blogs, the one that automatically caught my eye was Brown Girl Magazine. This blog is written by different women of color sharing experiences either of themselves or of other women of color. I enjoyed this blog, especially the post about Meghan Markle titled “The U.K. Press vs Meghan Markle: a Reflection of its’ Issue With Women”. In this post, Safeera Sarjoo explains what has been going on with Prince Harry and his wife Meghan and the whole issue with having to step back from the royal family. She also says that Meghan has been a victim of racism through all of this, which I totally agree with. However, racism is not the only problem with this scenario, what Sarjoo wanted to focus on was the British’s treatment towards women overall. She mentions what happened when Kate Middleton married Prince William, she was mistreated for being a “commoner”.

ST. ANDREWS, UNITED KINGDOM – JUNE 23: Kate Middleton and her father Michael Middleton sighted prior to her graduation ceremony at the University of St. Andrews, where she obtained a 2:1 degree in the History of Art on June 23, 2005 in St. Andrews, Scotland. (Photo by Indigo/Getty Images)

I can use this blog post as a model for my own work because I like how the author developed her point by presenting various evidences to back up her argument. She didn’t simply state that the British have a problem with women, she explained why she is correct by starting with Markle’s example, and then proving that this has not been the only incident. Some bloggers focus on giving their opinion and not on providing people with facts, but this was not the case with Safeera Sarjoo.

Here in Massachusetts, there is a non-profit organization called Massachusetts Climate Action Network that fights the climate crisis. They have chapters all around Massachusetts and their goal is to improve Massachusetts energy and climate policies and programs. They advocate at the state and regional level for policies that will benefit the citizens and end climate change. They believe that the best way to fight climate change is by getting our electricity 100% from renewable energy. They have gotten the government to listen to them and actually take action, and this to me means a successful social movement. There are tons of social movements, but not all of them get to make a change. This organization has mobilized a group of people who have the same goal and they have made a change in Massachusetts.