Naomi Wadler — Disruptor Awards

Naomi Wadler is an 11 year old student activist who gained national attention for her speech at the March for Our Lives in Washington, DC on March 24, 2018.

Prior to the March, Naomi and her friend, Carter Anderson led a student walk out at her elementary school in Alexandria, Virginia on the one month anniversary of the senseless shooting at Marjory Stoneman High School in Parkland, Florida. Her school walk out was 18 minutes long, 17 minutes for each of the students who lost their lives in Parkland, and one additional minute for Courtlin Arrington, an African American student who was murdered shortly after the Parkland shooting in her Alabama high school.

Naomi’s mission is change the narrative around African American girls and “to acknowledge and represent the African American girls whose stories don’t make the front page of every national newspaper, whose stories don’t lead on the evening news.” Naomi believes every person is valuable. She hopes more people will join in her effort to remember Courtlin and the many African American girls lost to gun violence around the country whose potential will never be realized.

Naomi was born in Ethiopia, which means there needs to be an amendment to the Constitution before she can run for President of the United States. In the meantime, her goal is to be the President of the New York Times and to graduate the 5th grade, not in that order.