Thedailybeast.com: This week, the world’s eyes turned toward Nigeria. While the news that hundreds of young woman had been kidnapped from their schools by the terrorist group Boko Haram was slow to gain our attention, over the last ten days, that changed. Everybody from world leaders to Kardashians have joined the social media outcry. But among the loudest voices who helped bring the terrorism happening in Nigeria to our attention were moms. Many of social media’s most influential moms, women who were not only outraged that the news story hadn’t received the media attention it deserved but also felt profoundly connected to the horror that befell the young women and the devastation their parents were feelings, used their online platforms to voice, tweet, and Instagram their protest.
One of those moms was Kristen Howerton, a family and marriage therapist who blogs at Rage Against the Minivan,wrote, “We don’t need photos of the girls or interviews with the parents to prompt us to care . . . we just need our humanity. We need to see these girls as daughters, sisters, nieces, and friends. We need to imagine this happening in our own community… [because] girls matter. Everwhere.”