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16th March 2016
05:26pm GMT

The letter highlights the harsh realities facing many girls across the globe: "Just imagine for a moment what it’s like to be in their shoes. Imagine being a bright, curious young girl with all kinds of ideas about what you want to be when you grow up. And then one day, someone taps you on the shoulder and says, 'Sorry, not you. You’re a girl. Your dreams stop here. You have to drop out of school, marry a man 20 years older than you whom you’ve never met, and start having babies of your own.'" Michelle continues to explain that her initiative, 'Let Girls Learn', is launching an action plan to alleviate the number of girls in need of education and pleads for readers to take action before sharing an anecdote about a girl she met in Cambodia. "She wakes up at four every morning to cook for her family, water their crops, and tend to their cows. Then she gets on her bicycle and pedals for an hour to get to school, where she studies as hard as she can to fulfill her dream of becoming a math teacher. "She told me, 'I have been through a lot of hardships. I know that I need to overcome them. I’ve never thought that they are the barrier to stop me. I’ve never thought of giving up … I never lose hope in myself.' "Against the most heartbreaking odds, these girls never lose hope in themselves. The least we can do is give them a chance to go to school, fulfill that hope, and become who and what they are meant to be." Find out more about Let Girls Learn at 62MillionGirls.com. Read more Lenny Letters HERE.