“This is what I wanted: use my words (…) whether wherever I went in order to make a difference”

Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco, Sergipe, Alagoas, Recife, Maranhão, Rondônia and Roraima. Half of the state deputies in the north-northeast region of Brazil have heard her strong name: Talyta França, Girl Up leader in Natal, has been crossing borders with her bill against menstrual poverty. And she promises this is just the beginning! Through communication, the aspiring journalist is eager to use her words to impact and help youth and teenagers to conquer their own opportunities and empower their own voices. Because of that, the BLB5 participant and founder of the project Buscando a Utopia has been acting as editor of the LALA Storytelling team and as a writer in the Acadêmicos project.

Born in Rio de Janeiro, it was there that Talyta found her first passion: music. At the age of 10, she started playing the cello. Her teacher, surprised by her quick resourcefulness, called her to help other classmates to read music and teach flute: that’s when she heard her call to leadership. The shyness that accompanied her dissolved, and Talyta began her journey to Natal in Rio Grande do Norte: she was the conductor of a band, class representative, founder, and president of her school’s student union, where she founded a school newspaper. Between speeches and research in the great debates that she organized, she got to know LALA. She met all the requirements to apply, but she didn’t believe it was possible. At the age of 17, traveling alone for the first time, Talyta was on her way to the Brazilian Leadership Bootcamp 5 (BLB5) em, São Paulo.

Like every LALA participant, during Bootcamp she realized that she was not alone in her beliefs and values: she had found a family. Her experience at BLB5 was so significant that, since she visited the vegetarian cuisine and the presentation of sustainability at Instituto Favela da Paz, Talyta has become a vegetarian – this year marks 3 years. Inspired by the joint growth of LALA participants, for not knowing anything about politics but wanting to change its reality, and by the thought that “we need to understand our surrounding to change it because there’s no way to change it if we don’t understand,” she began to study politics with them – from what the three powers are to how to draft a bill. Her determination and support network made her win third place in the Brazilian Youth Parliament program in her state. She also reinforces that her achievement was achieved because LALA made her feel capable of doing things she had never thought of before. Therefore, this 3rd place became very significant and one of the first steps towards her great future.

Besides that, her new admiration for sustainability became the focus of his project Seeking Utopia. Through it, she organized a campaign to clean up the beach in partnership with a research program that transformed the pet bottles and other plastics collected into prostheses for needy children using a 3D printer. Thanks to this, Buscando a Utopia was selected to represent Brazil on Youth for Nature, a platform that collects stories about sustainable youth. In her last school year, she wrote an e-book for Acadêmicos about how to found and manage a school newspaper, aiming to encourage and democratize tools for other students throughout Brazil.

Not long ago, she founded a Girl Up club – the pioneer in her state – united with a friend and, with the support of clubs and movements that were already happening in the country, began to write a bill against menstrual poverty with her group of only 4 components. After being filed in her state, Pernambuco, Sergipe, Alagoas, and Maranhão, and gaining space in interviews with big Brazilian TV and radio stations – such as CBN Brasil – Talyta set up a campaign to collect tampons. Through it, she managed to distribute more than 6,000 pads for people who menstruate. Currently, the club has 22 members, and its agendas take on increasing proportions.

Looking to the future, Talyta intends to study journalism to exercise her communicative passion. Through LALA, she sees the storytelling team as an opportunity to tell the amazing stories of people she has met in this community in order to inspire others, including future students. One of the quotes punctuated by Talyta was, “no one is too small, and if you feel that way, LALA helps us to grow; it’s like grandma’s heart: there’s room for everyone.” For such an impact and determination, we at LALA love and are grateful for Talyta’s unique existence and for being able to share in her continuous development.

These stories are written and edited by the Storytelling Team, an alumni-lead team that collects stories with the objective of recognizing and celebrating the wonderful work that volunteers, staff, and alumni do for LALA and also showing how the organization has impacted their life.