Erica Dhawan is a bright, confident, Wharton and Nursing freshman from Pittsburgh. She is articulate and passionate about women's rights. And, according to Teen People magazine, she is going to change the world.
Dhawan was selected last December by the magazine as one of the year's "20 teens who will change the world" and is featured in the April issue, which debuted in newsstands last week. She was recognized for her work in the field of women's reproductive health, most notably with the activist organization Choice USA.
"Choice USA had heard of this feature, and they nominated me. One day, a Teen People writer called me and told me that they would like to feature me and my work," Dhawan recalls.
Being selected allowed Dhawan a trip to Los Angeles for a photo shoot where she met fellow recipients Avril Lavigne, Frankie Muniz, Hilary Duff, Ashlee Simpson and a host of other activists, novelists, inventors and athletes -- all under the age of 20.
"They were nice," she laughs.
On March 10, Dhawan traveled to New York City for the awards luncheon at the Time-Life Building, an event hosted by actor Ben Affleck. There she received a $1,000 scholarship from L'Or‚al cosmetics and spoke about her efforts.
"It was almost surreal," she says. "It was a really cool thing."
Dhawan is quick to point out that her work with Choice USA is "not just about pro-choice issues."
"It's part of a broader public health care movement including women's health, reproductive services, international family planning, AIDS funding and minority issues. It's about ensuring that the voices of women are heard."
And on April 25, many women and men campaigning for reproductive rights will be heard in Washington, D.C., during the annual March for Women's Lives, an event that Dhawan is anxiously awaiting.
"It's going to be an amazing mobilization," she says.
As a Choice USA activist, Dhawan gathers as many students as she can from the Philadelphia region and arranges for them to meet youth from all around the nation for the Young People's All-Access Contingent, the largest youth and student delegation at the march.
"There will be free trainings all day on how to mobilize youth on historically underrepresented issues that campuses and communities are struggling with," she adds.
Dhawan became interested in women's rights issues in high school when she and fellow students organized a young women's leadership conference. She also attended a leadership retreat in the District of Columbia that focused on reproductive activist leadership.
Her involvement snowballed from there. Soon after, she learned about Choice USA and began working for the organization.
Dhawan cites her older sister, a medical student, as her role model.
"She exposed me to public health issues, and through her, I became interested in them," Dhawan says.
In the future, Dhawan hopes to continue similar activist work.
"With my dedication to human rights and studying global health and economics, I would want to do something to help women become political and social entrepreneurs in their lives and communities," she says.
The biggest problem facing women today, she says, is "making sure that their voices are heard, especially those who are not traditionally represented, and making sure that women have affordable health care. That's what I'm all about, really."
But for now, Dhawan is heavily focused on the upcoming march. "People are saying that it's going to be the largest march in U.S. history," she says.
