Jake Tapper’s 10-Year-Old Daughter Writes Feminist NYT Op-Ed

Jake Tapper

By Nathan Guttman October 31, 2017

The Tapper family has more than one pundit at home.

Alice Paul Tapper, the 10-years old daughter of CNN anchor Jake Tapper, just penned her first op-ed for the New York Times.

Titled “I’m 10. And I Want Girls to Raise Their Hands,” the article describes the young Tapper’s efforts to get girls to speak out in class. “I noticed that all the boys stood in the front and raised their hands while most of the girls politely stayed in the back and were quiet. It made me upset,” Tapper described her experience from a recent field trip.

And after consulting with her mother, she took action, launching a Girl Scout patch called the Raise Your Hand patch. To earn the patch, the girl scout must pledge to raise her hand in class and recruit three other girls who will do the same. “People say girls have to be 90 percent confident before we raise our hands, but boys just raise their hands,” she wrote. “I tell girls that we should take the risk and try anyway, just like the boys do.”

Since the patch’s launch, Tapper’s troop has been getting calls from Girl Scouts across the country interested in the idea.

Like any good writer, Tapper ends her article with a personal anecdote. Her name, she explained, was chosen in honor of the 19th century suffragist Alice Paul. “Having Alice Paul’s name makes me feel special. For women to be equal to men, we have to fight for it.”

Contact Nathan Guttman at guttman@forward.com or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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