If we stop defining each other by what we are not and start defining ourselves by who we are ― we can all be freer and this is what HeForShe is about. It's about freedom. I want men to take up this mantle. So that their daughters, sisters and mothers can be free from prejudice but also so that their sons have permission to be vulnerable and human too ― reclaim those parts of themselves they abandoned and in doing so be a more true and complete version of themselves. You might be thinking who is this Harry Potter girl? And what is she doing speaking at the UN. And it's a really good question, I have been asking myself the same thing. All I know is that I care about this problem. And I want to make it better. And having seen what I've seen ― and given the chance ― I feel it is my responsibility to say something. Statesman Edmund Burke said: “All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing.” In my nervousness for this speech and in my moments of doubt I've told myself firmly ― If not me, who? If not now, when?
