The two biggest challenges that i face all my life as a young leader has always been my age and gender. Coming from an exclusively patriarchal or masculine society rather l have always been perceived to be a bit of a wrong gender to achieve and reach certain milestones and a bit too young to dream, to be ambitious to be an active agent of change and a catalyst of development.

It's difficult for me to meet women because my crowd is much older. I know that for some of the young women I do meet, a relationship with me can be envisioned as a benefit to their career.

To people who've been looked at and considered beautiful, particularly women who relied on it so much... age is quite a challenge. The thing which you've always used, a power, is taken away from you.

Once again I am caught in the glare of ageism and misogyny that permeates the world we live in. A world that refuses to celebrate women past the age of 45 and feels the need to punish her if she continues to be strong-willed, hard-working and adventurous. […] I have been degraded by the media since the beginning of my career but I understand that this is all a test and I am happy to do the trailblazing so that all the women behind me can have an easier time in the years to come.

It was about women, but now it is about you youth as well; because you are also a large part of the community that has been left out, you are told you are still too young, but you need to begin to make decisions now about yourselves, about the community, about the future of the country.

Even though laws have changed we still have so many social constraints and so many rules that we set for ourselves and that society sets for us. It’s very difficult still to be a woman.

It is just like our African traditional values, when a woman is growing she is gaining respect and positioned into taking elderly roles in the society. This is the same with the modern society. When you reach that stage, the men naturally accord you the necessary respect and cooperation you need to succeed.

A lot of young women are compromising their peace and state-of-mind everyday because of societal pressures, but it’s important to keep your integrity in everything you do.

It is very difficult to be a woman in politics, especially in a culture where we have a tradition of discrimination against women and girls, but I know that in our society women are respected.

27 YOUNG WOMEN OFFER YOU A SPECIAL ENERGY In general, youth in a woman bespeaks radiant, unobstructed, and refreshing feminine energy. A young woman tends to be less compromised by masculine layers of functional protection built up over years of need. Traditionally, young women were understood to offer a man a particularly rejuvenative quality of energy. Older women may maintain, or even increase, the freshness and radiance of their energy, but it is rare.

As a relatively young woman in a male dominated senior leadership environment, it can sometimes feel difficult to be taken seriously and, consequently, to believe in oneself. So this is a big confidence booster in my intellectual leadership and a green light to venture out and continue forging new pathways.

…I think a lot of professionals in this industry genuinely believe young people can’t write, and others believe that if we’ve made it, it’s only because our age is so shiny and interesting, and that alone is what pushes us through. I hesitate to say that it’s been a complete barrier because for marginalized writers there are certainly other barriers that are a lot worse. But when it comes to age, I’ve seen agents openly declare they would never sign a college or high school student. I’m really happy to have an agent and editors who believe in me regardless of my age and furthermore take my age into account as just another facet of who I am as a person – like how other authors are full-time mothers/fathers/caregivers…

I had the opportunity to make like the coolest makeup line that I've always dreamed of. It's really my only passion. I learned a lot though and just have experienced things that people my age do not even know how to handle. I do feel like people don’t take me seriously as a businesswoman because of my age and my reputation. But I do think they’re starting to. I like to prove people wrong.

We need succession in career women's clubs. The younger generation of women helps us to be more aware of how our world is changing.