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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at JMU chapter.

November 5th, 2024 saw the results of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, resulting in the re-election of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States. This election reminds the nation that it has repeatedly failed its women. Women, who make up 50.5% of the US population as of 2022, are the backbone of the United States, but their impacts are consistently neglected and ignored. From politics to pop culture, girls are the strength of a nation despite not always being acknowledged.

In her book Young and Restless: The Girls Who Sparked America’s Revolutions, author Mattie Kahn looks into 200+ years of American history to distinguish key movements led by teenage girls. Her thorough research and numerous examples achieves her overarching goal of showing the many laborious and overlooked contributions of teenage girls to American history and can be best summed up with this quote: “We herald our girls as saviors. How is it then that we treat them with so much scorn?” The world tells girls to tamper themselves down all the while gaining from the actions of these girls time and time again, whether it be the Lowell Mill Girls, Caludette Colvin, or even Greta Thunberg, society benefits from the work of these forgotten girls. 

Even beyond blatant, forthright involvement in social and political movements, girls have an impact on these things through their interests in the role of fangirls. Fangirls create a more lucrative economy for women and induce societal change specifically through a heavy presence in media and the arts.  

Fangirls often have the largest influence on music, which can be seen through the teenage girls in the Elvis craze of the 1950s, Beatlemania of the 1960s, and even the One Direction infection in the 2010s. Often, fangirls are seen with a negative connotation by the media, but the infatuation teen girls have on specific musicians forces attention to these acts, obtaining them critical success, commercial success, long-lasting careers, and helping to launch cultural revolutions.  

The strength of fangirls’ impact was exemplified following the unexpected death of One Direction member Liam Payne in October 2024. After Payne’s death, One Direction fans of all ages rallied together on social media to discuss the impact the singer’s death had on them. This range in age of fans shows the band’s ongoing popularity despite not releasing music since 2015. In fact, as of the publication of this article, they sit at #26 in the world for musicians on Spotify. Fans of the band continue to exist due to the members’ solo popularity and due to the fangirls online who continue to discuss the band’s music, building new generations of fans through their social media content. 

Beyond fangirling, the influence of women’s support on media is immense. For example, 2023’s Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig, grossed over $1 billion and made her the first solo female director to achieve this. The accomplishment, however, was undermined by the fact that Gerwig did not obtain an Oscar nomination for Best Director at the Academy Awards that year. Although many argued nominations to be for quality over economic performance, many women (myself included), felt this snub was likely rooted in Gerwig’s gender and the story’s emphasis on feminist themes and focus on a primarily female audience. 

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Taylor Swift even addresses this idea of the profitable nature of female art in her 2023 Person of the Year interview with Time Magazine, saying that if we are to talk about the stereotypical “feminine interests” in a patriarchal society, then we have to look at it cynically. “What fuels a patriarchal society? Money, flow of revenue, the economy…feminine ideas becoming lucrative means that more female art will get made. It’s extremely heartening,” said Swift.

The creation of art centered on or created by female artists induces economic change that helps establish socioeconomic changes that influence politics. To reference Taylor Swift again, an Instagram story she posted to encourage voter registration following her endorsement of Kamala Harris drew roughly 400,000 people to a voter registration site. Swift’s status as a role model for many girls means that she is able to create change with a simple statement, emphasizing her ability to speak for an often overlooked demographic in the US through her immense status as a global powerhouse who has built a brand on being relatable to that demographic. 

Additionally, Swift has been spearheading economic growth with The Eras Tour, becoming the first concert tour to gross $1 billion in late 2023. “If Taylor Swift were an economy, she’d be bigger than 50 countries…It’s all a testament to her focus on the fan experience,” the President of QuestionPro Research and Insights said. Swift’s continued dedication to understanding and representing this demographic of (primarily) young women shows that the voices of girls are stronger than many believe, as they have been a key part in helping Swift achieve this economic feat. 

The 2024 election outcomes based on demographics showed women expressing more support for Kamala Harris than men. Exit polling shows that young men with and without college degrees preferred Trump in the 2024 election (58% without degrees and 51% with degrees), however, 55% of women without a college degree and 64% of women with a college degree voted for Harris. Despite the youth vote favoring Harris over Trump (52% to 46%), their support was less than that of Biden in 2020 (who was up +25 points with the youth vote in 2020). This inherent difference shows that the majority of Americans are still not ready for a female Commander in Chief. 

Additionally, the trend of voters selecting Trump over Harris could show how deep the roots of the patriarchal nature of society seep into our social and political organization. A belief in Harris’s “inability to lead” or “lack of qualifications” despite her decades long career in politics and law is likely tied to her gender identity over actual flaws in her skillset, showing that our nation is still averse to female power, ambition, and leadership. 

As we start to grapple with the fact that we are entering a second Trump presidency, it’s important to remember that girls (and women) have always had strength and a voice in our nation. The country — and greater world —continue to gain from the socioeconomic contributions of women and girls, despite continuing to prioritize male-centric interests or leadership. Although girls may be a demographic often ignored by leaders, powerful figures, and the general public, these changes and benefits will always exist. Remembering this, and the fact that as a group, us girls stand united against these upcoming four years may be the key to making the most of our country’s future, and remaining resilient in the ongoing fight for women’s equality. 

Maddie is a double major in Communications Studies and Media Arts and Design. In her free time, Maddie loves to keep up with pop culture, and can be found reading or watching movies to log on her Goodreads and Letterboxd, or listening to Taylor Swift, Jack Johnson, and Maggie Rogers way too often.