Thousands of high school and middle school students flocked to the Los Angeles Convention Center on Friday morning. They were there to attend the LA Promise Fund Girls Build Leadership Summit featuring guest speaker Hillary Clinton.
The leadership summit is geared toward girls and young women and encourages them to get involved with issues they are passionate about as well as develop their leadership skills.
Clinton spoke at length about her experiences growing up and included stories about her mother's turbulent childhood in Los Angeles. She told the story of how at eight years old, her mother was sent (along with her five-year-old sister) to live with grandparents in Alhambra. The girls were sent across country without any adult supervision. After realizing that living with their grandparents was not ideal, Clinton's mother became a maid at 14 so that she could support herself.
"What my mother taught me is that everybody gets knocked down. What matters is if you get back up and keep going," Clinton said.
Clinton also spoke about her loss to Donald Trump in the 2016 election, explaining that it was more difficult to accept losing to a person who she did not believe would be a good President.
"It's hard being the only woman in the room," Clinton said, recalling her time in the Senate. Clinton said it is time that girls realize that they are enough. "I hope that every remaining barrier, every legal or attitudinal barrier, that still exists that tells a young girl you can't do that because you're a girl or makes that girl think that, we tear down once and for all," Clinton said.
Read more about the summit here