Actress shines in new role as self-esteem ambassador,
Meghan Markle first spoke up at age 11; she’s in Toronto to help others do the same
She’s best known for playing the smart and fashionable Rachel Zane on the hit television drama Suits.
But on Tuesday, Meghan Markle takes on another role as she addresses a group of Toronto teachers, youth counsellors and community workers who work with girls.
What she’ll bring to that appearance is not so much the glamour of being a Hollywood celebrity, but instead her memories of being a young biracial girl growing up in Los Angeles, struggling to fit in and find her voice.
She also brings recollections of the first time she discovered, at age 11, that speaking up can spark change.
“I grew up in L.A. in a school that was diverse, but it was not really integrated, so I didn’t ever fully fit in with the black girls or the white girls or the Latina girls,” the 34-year-old actor said in a phone interview Friday before heading to the Suits set in Toronto. The legal drama is in its fifth season.
There were awkward and lonely times. People laughed at her for joining every club, but she did it “because I didn’t want to sit alone at lunch . . . so that I had something to do, so I could find a place where I fit in.”
Markle wrote about her struggle for identity as the daughter of a Caucasian father and African-American mother in an August essay in Elle UK. In it, she recalls the time in Grade 7 when she had to fill out a census that asked her ethnicity and then provided one choice of white, black, Spanish or Asian.
“So, I didn’t tick a box,” she writes. “I left my identity blank — a question mark, an absolute incomplete — much like how I felt.”
At home later, her father had a solution that stuck with her: Next time, draw your own box.
That’s the kind of message she wants to pass along Tuesday to about 100 adults invited to the workshop sponsored by the Dove Self-Esteem Project.
“It’s really important that young women be reminded that their involvement matters and that their voice is heard. Even if it feels like it’s small, it really can make an impact.”
Markle was 11 when she had her first taste of that. At the time, she was incensed by an ad for dish soap that referred to “women all over America” fighting greasy pots and pans. What about the guys?
Her parents told her if she believed something was wrong, she should try and fix it.
She wrote letters: to then-first lady Hillary Clinton; civil rights lawyer Gloria Allred; Linda Ellerbee, host of a news show for kids; and Proctor and Gamble, the company that made the dish soap.
The women wrote back encouraging letters. Ellerbee sent a television crew to her house. The wording of the ad was eventually changed from “women” to “people.”
Twenty-three years later, Markle is speaking up for equality on a different scale. Last year, she joined the ranks of celebrities who’ve taken on goodwill and advocacy roles with the United Nations, becoming women’s advocate for political participation and leadership.
She’s travelled to Rwanda to meet politicians in a parliament made up of 64 per cent women, and grassroots female leaders at a refugee camp outside Kigali. In March, she addressed the UN for an International Women’s Day event, stressing the importance of female leadership, whether it’s a girl running for class president or a woman for head of state.
Markle lives a celebrity life and writes a lifestyle blog where she weighs in on everything from the latest green smoothies to how to style your coffee table.
But she says she doesn’t want to be the kind of actor who just goes on Twitter to say “look at these great shoes I got.”
She’s also more than happy to talk about the smoke and mirrors of the entertainment industry and fashion magazines, and the skewed messages they send to young female consumers.
“People watch me as Rachel Zane on the show, who’s so polished and so put together,” she says. “But that includes Spanx and two hours of hair and makeup.”
Girls need to know that “in real life, that is not what it looks like.”
“It’s really important that young women be reminded that their involvement matters.” MEGHAN MARKLE HOLLYWOOD ACTRESS