7 facts about Zuriel Oduwole who spoke at the UN

Zuriel Oduwole is only 14, yet in November 2014, at age 12, she became the world’s youngest filmmaker to have a self-produced and self-edited work after her film showed in two movie chains.

Zuriel Oduwole seen here with a Malawian ambassador has met and conducted interviews with many world leaders

 Zuriel has also meet many world leaders, spoken at the United Nations and fighting for the right of the girl-child globally. Zuriel is a global icon who is changing the world.

On April 21 2014, she was also listed as the most powerful 11 year old in the world by New York Business Insider’s in their listing of “World’s Most Powerful Person at Every Age”.

In February 2015, Elle Magazine listed her in their annual feature of “33 Women Who Changed The World”, alongside Fed Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen and President of General Motors, Mary Barra. And the list goes on and on

Now let us meet Zuriel Oduwole, fact by fact:

1. She has meet several world leaders

Zuriel has met with 19 Presidents and Prime Ministers in line with her education advocacy work. Some of these include the leaders of Guinea, Ghana, Mauritius, Jamaica, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Liberia, South Sudan, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Guyana and Namibia.

2. Addressed an international education summit
In April 2016 at age 13, she was invited as the keynote speaker at the annual Maryland State Department of Education’s Early Childhood Educational conference at Ocean City, Maryland, addressing more than 600 adult delegates on how she sees the education of future US leaders developing. Later in June 2016, she was invited as the featured speaker as well as a panelist at the annual Women in Entertainment Luncheon, in Los Angeles, California, U.S.

3. Columnist for the Guardian and TEDx speaker

In June 2016, the Guardian Newspaper signed  her on as a Columnist to share her insight on issues as seen by a younger generation and giving her a section and segment for periodic writing. She became a TEDx circuit speaker when she headlined the TEDx Gbagada event in July 2016 as the featured speaker, talking about the inter-connectivity between the past and future generations.

4. Holds honourary ambassador to Tanzania
In October 2013, Oduwole was bestowed with an honorary ambassador title in Tanzania by Salma Kikwete, and a computer lab in one of the country’s schools was named after her.

5. Forbes Africa most influential Women list
In August 2016, Forbes Afrique which is distributed across all 23 Francophone African countries as well as France, Belgium and Switzerland, featured her in their annual Africa’s 100 Most Influential Women’s list, alongside the President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Ameenah Gurib, President of Mauritius.

7. Her project received endorsement from Wole Soyinka
#FollowTheBallForEducation Project received worldwide acclaim and was signed by Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka amongst other eminent personalities.Zuriel, Azaliah, and Arielle- her two younger sisters, launched a TV production company chronicling their travels through Africa: African Youth Travels.
The youth ambassador remains an example to many young women across the world. Zuriel is definitely an enigma having made the global influential list and remains the only teenager that has met two Nigerian presidents back-to-back. She met president Jonathan at the villa in 2015 and later president Buhari in the US in 2016.