Jin In

“Our world is a mess.”

and we need every single person to become an agent of change,” says Jin In in her book “Girl Power: Sustainability, Empowerment, and Justice.” The researcher, writer, empower-ist, action-ist, and global-ist is on a mission to remind us that when we define power differently, we shift power and use it more wisely.

Portraits: Stephanie C. Olsen
Hair & Makeup: Marie Derbes
Styling: Judith Celata, Fearless Angel Boutique
Cover Design: Bridget Ryan Snell

When we first met, we were talking about the passing of President Jimmy Carter. The mark I want to leave is never going to equal his, but, I want my kids to at least see me in service to others as he did.

Jin: First, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for creating this brand new issue on power. Indeed, you are leaving a mark in the world!

Speaking of power and someone who did it differently was President Carter. He used his power for good and in service of–two hallmarks of empowerment. I had the privilege of being with him at the Carter Center Human Rights Defenders Forum two years in a row. And there, I watched him patiently listening to every single survivor of horrific violation of their human rights. Most were from war-torn countries or countries ruled by a brutal dictator with no freedom to speak out. So President Carter listened. Simply listened no matter how long they spoke. Now keep in mind at the time, he was in his 90s. And yet, the time and attention he gave outlasted most of us in the room. From him, I learned the healing power of deep listening. I’m sure it’s why he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and since then, I’ve been on a mission to meet as many Nobel Peace laureates as possible—18 and counting!

Now, to your concern about service and giving back, you may think we must be extraordinary like President Carter. But I believe: Do what you can with what you have, right now. This is what I learned from wise mentors and role models like President Carter. Also from my Eastern ethos, I learned to practice service not as a onetime act, but as a way of life. Lastly, my experience has been that the poor give and serve more. When I’m in poor countries or in poor neighborhoods in rich countries, people have opened their homes, cooking for me and sharing whatever they have. As far as net worth, they give so much more than wealthy people.

I want to get back to this, but I want to talk about you. Do you mind talking about your beginnings?

Of course not. But first, I see why you’re a storyteller. A wise mentor taught me: To see fully, you need hindsight, foresight, and insight. This is in fact to whom I dedicate my book “Girl Power”–those who have given me sight. And it’s what you’re doing, now!

So my beginning: I was born in one of the poorest countries on the planet. To help you and the readers visualize my world at that time, modern toilets were rare, street food vendors were prevalent. I can still smell the food, getting it walking to school and sharing it with friends.

Indeed, the year I was born, South Korea’s gross domestic product per capita was less than Mexico, South Africa, and even North Korea! Yes, the darkest country on the planet today. And yet, South Korea today is the 11th largest world economy. This growth happened in one generation—my generation.

What do you remember about  South Korea?

What I remember is simply being happy. Now reflecting, I think it was more about being content—that is, not so poor that I was suffering but also liberated from the constant consumption of America. I have now been to areas around the world where people, particularly females, sell their bodies for money and food. On the other side, especially in the United States, I witnessed people buying stuff and more stuff even when they don’t need it. My memory of South Korea was a balance.

“The plot twist of this tragedy is that I didn’t know it——my father’s death. My whole family created a make-believe world where I was told that both my mother and my father went to the United States to build a better life for us, and one day soon, they’ll send for me (and my older sister) for all of us to be reunited in the U.S.”

Now I also realize my happiness was the result of having a sense of agency as well as knowing it must be shared with others. I played outside with friends, bought my own food from street vendors and then shared with everyone. One such yummy treat is called hotteok, a kind of honey-filled pancake that’s served warm. It’s wrapped in newspaper folded like origami. Walking to school, playing with other children…it’s all normal not knowing what many see as a tragedy.

My father passed away when I was just seven months old. I have no conscious memory of this person. In fact, I call him my DNA father—now, I have a soul father whom my mother married when I was a teenager.

The plot twist of this tragedy is that I didn’t know it——my father’s death. My whole family created a make-believe world where I was told that both my mother and my father went to the United States to build a better life for us, and one day soon, they’ll send for me (and my older sister) for all of us to be reunited in the U.S. Most children believe what adults tell them. I believed what adults told me. All the while, my sister and I remained in Seoul, South Korea, raised by three loving grandparents—my mother’s parents and her grandmother. There’s a saying that a child only needs one loving adult. I had three!

Did you have male influences in your life before you were reunited with your mom in the United States?

Yes. My grandfather, my mother’s father. He was the patriarch of the family, and he had impeccable character derived from Eastern ethos and philosophies like honesty, duty and honor, humility, and respect for elders. He taught me when I was a young child, “your word is your honor.” This meant you are responsible and accountable for what you say—no matter how big or small. This is still ingrained in me.

So, I was deeply puzzled when I heard a lot of empty words in America. “Let’s do lunch, let’s meet again soon, I’ll call you…” with no follow up. Even more befuddling was the reply I got when I called them on it, “Do you have it in writing?”

What?! What writing? They said it. As a young person, this was truly perplexing. So I called my grandfather and told him about this strange social practice in America. However, he calmly responded, “It doesn’t matter what other people do. You know what we taught you.”

Indeed, my grandfather was an extraordinary man. He lived a similar life as mine but in Japan. When he was a child, South and North Korea were one country under Japanese occupation. Education was rare. Certainly higher education was. So his father sent him to Japan as a child to get an education, including college. In fact, he even got a full scholarship for a Ph.D. at Sorbonne University in Paris, France—which was extremely rare at the time. You’d have to be truly gifted to get a Ph.D. scholarship in a Western school, let alone Sorbonne.

And yet, he turned it down. Yes, he declined what may have been a once in lifetime opportunity because of his ethos—duty, honor, responsibility. His country, South Korea, was at war and his countrymen were suffering. He thought “How great am I if I only develop myself when my whole country is suffering.” Furthermore, the so-called leaders of his country fled as many do like what we saw in Afghanistan and many others. The leaders are supposed to protect their country and yet, they’re the first to flee just to protect themselves. The United Nations and the United States asked him to stay and work with them. So he did, traveling to numerous countries, working with ally countries. He also learned and spoke multiple languages. We have pictures of him at the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower, and also at the United Nations—all extraordinary at the time. The whole family looked up to him, not just for his travel experience, but foremost, because of what he gave up, even more foreign in an individualistic society like America.

“Another plot twist to my story is that I was in fact born to one of the richest families in South Korea. My father’s family is one of a handful of landowners in South Korea. So I was born into power, and my mother never worked.”

Collectivism, collective rising is what my grandfather believed in and practiced. And he taught me to do the same. I think his ethos is in my DNA as I later saw them in myself when I started a nonprofit for every girl on the planet to be empowered and become a powerful agent for change.

Was your mother taught the same? How did she make the decision to go to the U.S.?

I sense I was the beneficiary of age, wisdom, and patience that my grandfather acquired by the time he was raising me. When my mother was growing up, he was different. Life was different. Most girls and young women were groomed to marry well. They had little practice in risk taking. So when my father died, my mom thought, “Why would I go to another country?” This may be hard for us to understand. Today, many travel or even move abroad readily. Back then, as my paternal aunt once told me, “The only people who move to another country are those who can’t make it in their own country.”

Another plot twist to my story is that I was in fact born to one of the richest families in South Korea. My father’s family is one of a handful of landowners in South Korea. So I was born into power, and my mother never worked. Why would she aspire to go to a foreign country with a language she didn’t speak to get a job?

With this said, it’s all about timing. During the 1970s and 1980s, there were mass immigrations of South Koreans to the United States. So, my wise grandfather cleverly encouraged her to go.

So this wasn’t her idea.

No. My grandfather brilliantly incentivized her to just try it out for one year—extending it every year. He was also direct—almost too direct and honest. I was told my grandfather told my mom bluntly, “You don’t have a life here. You have no social circle. In fact, they will look down on you for not having a husband.” He was right. She was ousted by her social circle because her husband died.

Sadly, this [shaming and outcasting of widows] still goes on. In India, widows live in a separate village and they also wear white so that they can be identified in society.

What was your experience realizing that you had been disempowered?

I was asked to write my story for the International Museum of Women in San Francisco. That was when I reflected and realized that this disempowerment-empowerment transformation happened three times—forks in the road which changed the trajectory of my life. Indeed, they were transformative: two deaths and one near death.

The first is the death of my father when I was seven months old. Most people think this is a tragedy. However, I see it as the moment my empowerment journey began. I was free to be who I am, not my father’s daughter because the value and worth of females at the time in South Korea was based on the man in their lives. In fact, I recently heard something which summarizes this profoundly: “Know thyself, not know about thyself.”

Another plot twist to my story is that I was born into great wealth. I noted this earlier—that my father’s family were landowners. My grandfather told me this. And this wealth was cut off the moment my father died because females weren’t given rights to inheritance. Even today, most landowners around the world are males. In my book, “Girl Power,” I lay out numerous shocking laws and social norms discriminating against girls and women.

Gratefully, I learned all of this as an adult, and it was like listening to a fairytale. I didn’t feel any grievance. Furthermore, I saw what had to have happened for me to be where I am today. That is, without the death of my father, my mother would have never immigrated to the United States. Foremost, I would not be championing Girl Power. For all of this to have transpired, my dad had to die.

Now, the second death was of my childhood mentor and guardian angel who trained me to be a servant leader. This is a story of its own. And the last one is near death, mine, which was the catalyst for collecting the first-ever girls and young women’s empowerment data on a global scale. Hopefully, we’ll get to this later!

Yes, let’s talk more about what happened when you came to this country. Child’s eyes: what’s happening?

I vividly remember the day I came to the United States. I was eight and my sister was ten. My grandmother dressed us in matching coats. It was a very long plane ride—nonstop from Seoul, South Korea, to Houston, Texas!

I ran out of the airplane eager to hug my mom and dad. But what I saw was one parent—my mother. Now, this would have shocked most kids, but I was more shocked by what I saw, not what I didn’t see. That is, the airport was filled with people of different race and ethnicity—not like me.

I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who’s experienced that before.

It was like being in Disney World, but it was the real world. And I was completely enchanted. In some ways, I learned about diversity early. Foremost, I chose curiosity rather than drowning in my sorrow about a loss I couldn’t do anything about.

In fact, my mom told me that she didn’t want to bring us [to the United States] until she was ready, including ready to tell us that my father died unexpectedly. Later, my grandfather told me that he had to buy time, every year, because she wanted to bring us, and he knew she wasn’t ready—didn’t have sufficient financial and social support to raise two children. As the saying goes: It takes a village to raise a child, let alone two children. So again, my grandfather told my mom, “You have to build a world that you want to bring your children into.”

And she did! However, her story is very different. She’s very different…than me. I’m inquisitive, a risk-taker, practice trial by fire. For example, when I was young, I was told, “You can’t go to school with your older sister.” But I followed her, walking with her…I just kept going. Then as a teenager, I’d go bungee jumping and skydiving. Yeah, I think I have a natural inclination of “Let’s try it!” Another key component of empowerment.

What made you decide to go back? Because most people don’t. Once they get away from that disempowerment, the idea of going back to it and sitting in it for a while, well, most won’t.

“I ran out of the airplane eager to hug my mom and dad. But what I saw was one parent—my mother. Now, this would have shocked most kids, but I was more shocked by what I saw, not what I didn’t see. That is, the airport was filled with people of different race and ethnicity—not like me.”

Well, this is where I have to be honest and humble. It wasn’t my call. I was called. It’s why it’s called a “calling” or a vocation. When we finally let go of our agenda and surrender to a greater calling, we are shown the way. Also, what I didn’t realize is that I was trained—to become an “empower-ist.” I don’t know if that’s a word! Nevertheless, I write in the book about the person who trained me, my childhood mentor, a saint who I mentioned earlier. She wasn’t just my trainer. She was foremost my human mirror. What do I mean by this? We’re the only ones who can’t see ourselves. I can see you. You can see me, but I can’t see myself. So we look in the mirror. But this isn’t who we truly are. We see what we want to see, not what is. Many times, we see blemishes, imperfections…or the opposite, glorification. Funny now we have a term for this: Selfie.

Human mirrors reflect back to you not only who you are, but also who you can become. The highest expression of who you are.

Know thyself.

Exactly.

Tell me about her.

Barbara Crocker was another extraordinary human being—a quiet superhero—by whom I was taught, mentored and loved. We all called her Betty Crocker for her amazing baking. In fact, I thought she was the Betty Crocker as people would go gaga over her baking, and then I went to the grocery store and saw her baking boxed up. “Oh my gosh, she’s Betty Crocker!” Gratefully, I was her apprentice. She taught and gave me her baking secrets like sifting flour “to put your loving spirit into your baking.”

What was most remarkable about Barbara was that she was a fierce social justice warrior. I didn’t know it at the time as she did it quietly. Looking back, she was a superhero—doing normal work during the day and working for racial rights, women’s rights, immigrant rights during the off hours. Case in point, she mentored and supported a lot of immigrant children in Houston, one of the largest cities in America with extraordinary diversity. Fifty two languages were spoken in my high school!

Barbara was the first person who gave me a history lesson on the discrimination and unequal treatment that women and girls endured in the United States. I was shocked to learn when she was young, attending Baylor University, female students had to wear skirts, no pants, and the common notion was that women were going to college to get an “Mrs.” degree. However, Barbara excelled academically, She got a master’s degree in speech pathology. Also she went to the White House as the sole female student on the debate team. She met President Lyndon Johnson! And she rebelled against the status quo. She wore jeans, rolled underneath her skirt. Lastly, Barbara warned me not to take social progress for granted. “We have to be vigilant,” she said. We can go backwards—like what we’re experiencing right now!

So, I had the best of both worlds as role models. My mother, the disciplinarian with strong Eastern ethos—honesty, duty, and respect. You know, I got this training. Also, I received the Western ethos training from Barbara—challenging authority but also practicing justice with love as Martin Luther King Jr. stated. Barbara was in fact my spiritual mentor, my Sunday school teacher.

My formative years were a balance of East and West. However, I wouldn’t say my mom was a mentor. Mentors have a special role and impact—similar to mothers and yet distinct. And not everyone has a mentor. Many of my colleagues in Washington, D.C., New York, San Francisco, Boston have told me they never had a mentor And yet, they’re in leadership positions. To this, I believe achieving something is not the same as becoming someone. And mentors help you become the best version of yourself.

Barbara taught me something powerful—to transform my thinking. I write about one such experience in “Girl Power.” Shortly after arriving in America, a child in my class called me “poor” when he learned I came from South Korea. “Oh, you’re from a poor country, you’re poor.” English is my second language and Barbara reinforced my ESL class. So when I asked her what “poor” is because another child called me this, without missing a beat and with her southern charm smile, she replied, “Oh, honey, it’s an adjective. Remember how we learned adjectives the other day? Adjectives are a temporary state. Like one day you’re happy. The next day you’re sad. Today you may be poor. But we’re going to change that.”

Then, she did something even more powerful—action! She taught me to serve the poor. She taught and trained me on community service and social justice activism. Furthermore, she transformed words. When I first met her, I’d say things like, “girls can’t do this, girls can’t do that” because that’s what I heard as a child in Korea. But she would clarify, “The word can’t does not exist.” She noted so firmly that I literally thought the word “can’t” did not exist.

Now, as an empowerment researcher, this is exactly what data showed empowerment is. It’s a process going from “I cannot” to “I can.” It’s a transformation from “cannot” to “can.” And if you’re a little child and your lexicon doesn’t have the word cannot, all you know is can!

Indeed, Rabbi Abraham Heschel said, “speech has power. Words do not fade. What starts out as a sound ends in a deed.” And voice is one metric I used to collect empowerment data.

Your research on girls’ empowerment is the first and only research of its kind. Where did you start?

To clarify, I collected empowerment data on a global scale. My target group was adolescent girls and young women; however, I’m not sure it’s ever been collected on any group on a global scale.

Now, I’d love to say that I planned this or even my career. On the contrary, I was called—to this research, work, and path. It began when I experienced the greatest injustice of my life. Barbara, my mentor and saint, was diagnosed with an Autoimmune disease with no cure—Lupus. When I dug deep, I learned that there is no cure for any autoimmune disease. autoimmune diseases are prevalent in women, and medicine has been mostly about men, white men at that. Indeed, it wasn’t until a 1991 law that the National Institute of Health started to include women and minorities in clinical trials. Before 1991, even breast cancer research was done only on white males, as hard as that is to believe.

To make this worse, Houston has the world’s largest medical center. It’s the home to MD Anderson Cancer Center, DeBakey Heart Center, Texas Children’s Hospital…and on and on. It’s so big it has its own zip code. And yet, no cure for my Barbara. So I went to medical school. However, I didn’t go to become a doctor. I went to find a cure for my Barbara.

That’s when I opened a Pandora’s box. The disregard and devaluation of girls and women isn’t just in medicine, and not just in the U.S. A global compilation of the disempowerment——status of girls——is in “Girl Power.” The reality is that our planet is truly a man-made, male-dominated, male-majority world.

With this said, Barbara taught me to never be so angry that you become part of the problem. She would say, “Heal, not hate.” I remember the day that I felt like I’d failed. “Barbara, I don’t have a cure for you.” And she said, “Honey, your job isn’t to save me. It’s to reach back and pull [along] all the girls just like you.”

She gave you permission to stop trying to heal her.

Yes. This was the second death—disempowerment/empowerment transformation—I noted earlier. Rather than worrying about what you cannot do, do what you can, now. This is in fact the Serenity Prayer: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.

So, I did what Barbara trained me to be. I don’t even know if it’s a word but she’d say, “Honey, you’re not an activist nor an advocate. You are an actionist!”

I like that. Did Barbara prepare you to be an actionist?

Absolutely! First, for me an actionist is a real-life superhero disguised as an ordinary person. So, Barbara was a speech pathologist. She worked for the state of Texas, which meant that she served disadvantaged, underserved communities, literally and figuratively restoring people’s voices. This was her superpower and she took me along training me to do the same.

What I witnessed was true healing—not just the physical voice. More importantly, I watched her restore their dignity, respect, and worth as a human being. One amazing human being and human soul I write about in “Girl Power” is Ms. Lily Ruth Warren. She lived in the projects of Houston. She didn’t have a family of her own. Instead, she dedicated her whole life to a white family being their cook and maid. So when she suffered a stroke at an old age, there was no one to  take care of her. Barbara was assigned to her to fix Ms. Warren’s voice, only. But of course, she did more, making sure she had food, her bills were paid on time, her door was locked because kids in the neighborhood would quietly come in to steal her food.

When Barbara got ill and she was too weak from Lupus, she graciously passed the baton to me. So I befriended this elderly frail woman. But soon, I learned I was the recipient of a greater gift—love. This happened on Thanksgiving. I asked, “Miss Warren, who are you spending Thanksgiving with?” She replied, “Oh, honey, I don’t celebrate those anymore.” I insisted, “But it’s Thanksgiving. Maybe there’s something we can be thankful for, together. I’ll spend it with you!” As an immigrant and Korean, my Thanksgivings consisted of a hodgepodge of food. So I thought I really wouldn’t be missing anything. And given Ms. Warren suffered a stroke, I planned on going to the store to pick up a few things. To my surprise, she said, “Oh, no. I’ll just put together something. All you have to do is show up.”

I showed up. And I was shocked. She cooked for days a meal that you would see in Southern Living magazine. I felt immensely special—the generosity, love, and not to mention purchasing all this food she couldn’t afford. It touched my heart, deeply, bringing tears to my eyes—as it does even now as I share this profound experience with you.

Indeed, this was one of many experiences that showed me how generous “the poor” are——what I noted at the beginning of our conversation. It reminds me of the wisdom of the poet Hafez: “And still, after all this time, The sun never says to the earth, ‘You owe Me.’ Look what happens with a love like that, It lights the Whole Sky.”

That’s beautiful. Is that how you get through these experiences—whenever you travel into a country with great conflict or poverty to collect the data—these stories of girls around the world?

To be clear, there isn’t much to “get through.” On the contrary, I’m met with hospitality and generosity. The foundation is built on common purpose and commitment to building Girl Power.

But first, “You can’t be what you can’t see.” as Marian Edelman who founded the Children’s Defense Fund profoundly noted. So I come armed with indisputable data to show just how powerful, impactful, and sustainable girls’ empowerment is. For example, if girls globally received and completed free, safe, quality education for 12 years, we can add $15 to $30 trillion into the global economy. That’s trillion with a “t.”

This is why I wrote “Girl Power”—to show our world a powerful force for change.

“Females make up about half the world’s farmers. If all female farmers were empowered we would produce 30% more food and feed 150 million more mouths. What may be the most surprising fact is that our planet would decrease 2.1 gigatons of carbon emissions by 2050. ”

How do you do that?

Mastery is turning complexity into simplicity. That is, empowerment has to be concrete for it to be realizable in our lives. First, what is empowerment—exactly? The word empowerment is used pervasively but what exactly does it mean? And when governments, businesses, and organizations claim that they are doing it, usually for women and girls, what exactly are they doing and are they making progress? Second, how is it—or is it—different from equality and equity which are all synonymously used together? Third, is empowerment just for girls and women or can anyone develop it? To find out, I went out and collected data, not just in poor countries but also rich countries including the United States. The target demographic group was adolescent girls and young women, but interestingly, we also got data about adolescent boys and young men.

The results are profound. It may even shock you! For example, the word “empowerment” doesn’t exist in most languages. That is, there is no direct correlation like “apple” in Spanish is “manzana” in French “pomme” in Arabic “تفاحة” in Mandarin “蘋果”.

What? No such word?

Yes! Imagine when a word is not in your lexicon. It’s not in your consciousness. And yet, I believe the spirit of empowerment—a sense of liberation that comes with agency—is in every one of us. It may be hidden deep inside or dormant, but it’s in there. And it’s not just in some of us. It’s in all of us.

So, to your question—how? Especially in cultures where girls—females as a whole for that matter—are not valued? Well, I first listen and learn and then lead with data. I call it my three L’s. But before anything, I come with no judgment. This is a spiritual principle. In fact, the word “satan” doesn’t mean what many may think. It’s derived from Hebrew meaning the “accuser” “judger” It’s the wisdom behind “Judge not, lest ye be judged.”

And the local people reciprocate, maybe because they think I’m not American? That is, when they meet me, they see an Asian person so they make no judgment about our culture, the American culture. In fact, most think I’m Chinese, and the only person who really cares about this is my mother. She wants me to tell everyone I’m South Korean, not Chinese.

Now, what doesn’t work is know-it-all Americans dictating to other cultures what they should do, how they should fix things—sound familiar with our current power? What works is listening, what I learned from President Carter. Then learn what they have to teach you about their rich heritage and sacred traditions. Then lead with data—indisputable, powerful data showing how impactful Girl Power is to their families, communities, and sustainability.

I simply let “Girl Power” speak for itself! And a telltale sign that this works is that within six months of starting this work, the charitable organization I founded, For Girls GLocal Leadership (4GGL), received partnership and training requests from organizations serving more than half a million girls and young women, globally. Even ones with decades of experience in development and sustainability, “Girl Power” was a novelty. In the book, I write about one such striking experience with the international organization BRAC, the world’s largest NGO (non-governmental organization.) Unbeknownst to me, at a small event, I met the chairman of BRAC who in fact has been knighted by the Queen of England for his humanitarian work, globally. After exchanging what we do, our life’s mission, he commended me for my work. However, it was his departing words that stuck with me, “I commend you because the population you’re advocating for is the ‘disposable’ population.”

Now, I knew what he meant. Girls, especially in poor countries, are not valued. It’s how we got to where we are today—a male-majority planet as I show in “Girl Power.” Nevertheless, it angered me. “How dare he call my people disposable?!” Moreover, how can he claim that his work is truly sustainable if he doesn’t empower girls—the next generation of changemakers in his communities?

“If girls globally received and completed free, safe, quality education for 12 years, we could add $15-$30 trillion into the global economy.
That’s trillion with a “t.”

So I wrote him a passionate 2:00 a.m. email. First, I thanked him. Then, I blasted into data, ending with the fact that “Girl Power” is a gamechanger and if he plans on making a dent in the global development space, girls’ and young women’s empowerment must be incorporated into his work. Several weeks later, I got a reply. It said I met their chairman and founder who invited me to come to Bangladesh to train them on Girl Power. That was when I learned BRAC has served 100 million people, globally, including nearly a quarter of a million girls in Bangladesh. In essence, they are the Bangladeshi government.

So, whatever the crisis, I have a solution for you! And there is no crisis where “Girl Power” demonstrates its impact more powerfully—and surprisingly—than in national security and peacebuilding. I lay out the fact in my book that national security is inextricably linked to the safety of girls and women. In fact, (as Valerie Hudson, a colleague and scholar in political science at The Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University noted) the best predictor of a nation at war is not lack of democracy, poverty, or religious or ethnic conflict. It is violence against women. This isn’t just for “those countries over there”—wherever that is. In the United States of America, a felony domestic violence conviction is the single most significant predictor of future violent crime found by the Department of Justice.

I entered this arena after the adoption of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, on women, peace, and security, and President Obama signed an executive order on the U.S. National Action Plan. It may surprise you that President Trump (in his first term) signed the Women Peace and Security Act of 2017, the first comprehensive law in the world on the subject. This is how I started to have conversations with the Department of Defense and NATO.

In your book we learn the direct impact on girls when you lay out all the facts about climate change. How do you convince someone who doesn’t believe in climate change? I suppose you have to meet people where they’re at.

Yes. Nelson Mandela poignantly noted, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.” I interpret this literally and metaphorically. Language that goes to our hearts is our love language—what you care most about. So if you care about politics, I speak politics. If you care about national security, I speak national security. If you care about money, I speak money. Indeed, I’ve learned a lot  of languages—literally and metaphorically.

That said, the love language most people speak is our safety and security. When that’s threatened, it’s all hands on deck. People find resources to protect themselves and their community.

This is how I was called to Washington, D.C. to work for a U.S. Administration. At the height of the 9/11 crisis—a rare attack on U.S. soil and not since Pearl Harbor—I made a compelling case to strategically focus on girls and young women for their intergenerational impact. I served as the first girls’ health fellow in the first federal office dedicated to gender equity and policy. That office is called the Office on Women’s Health at the Office of the Secretary at the U.S. department of Health and Human Services.

Today’s safety and security issue is climate change. No one can escape the harm we’ve caused to our planet. That’s not reversible. So we need a gamechanger. And even here, Girl Power is shockingly impactful and transformative. Thank goodness climate experts have already done this work! Project Drawdown assembled a team of over 200 researchers, scientists, policymakers, business leaders, and activists. I think King Charles, Prince Charles at the time, was a part of this group. They came up with 100 climate solutions and when they organized them by categories and put them in a pie chart, voila! The largest slice of the pie was girls as the agent of change—specifically girls’ education and family planning.

If you truly care about a sustainable future, you must invest in Girl Power. Let me show you why. Let’s just look at one industry—agriculture. Female farmers make up about half of  the world’s farmers, more in low to middle income countries. If all female farmers were empowered—have equal access to resources and own their land—we would produce 30% more food and feed 150 million more mouths. What may be the most surprising fact is that our planet would decrease 2.1 gigaton of carbon emission by 2050. Now this is the area where investors like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and the like have focused. They’re looking for an innovative technology that can do this whether via carbon capture/removal or carbon credit. But they can simply invest in female farmers–give them $1 trillion, the current market price for 2.1 gigaton of carbon emission removal or $105 billion for 2.1 gigaton of carbon credit.

In fact I love speaking with people who love money. President Trump said he wants to cut $2 trillion in federal funding. I’m happy to help him make that money. If girls and women have equal access to healthcare, that will add $1 trillion into the global economy. Equal pay is $7 trillion into the global economy. The most amount of money he can make is by investing in girls’ education—$15 to $30 trillion. Yes, Girl Power makes money for the world!

You’re talking about taking something complex and simplifying it.

Yes. It’s mastery. And yet, hard. We’re creatures of habit. We do the same thing over and over again, expecting different results, Einstein’s definition of insanity.

But just like we can’t bomb our way out of wars, we can’t make more stuff our way out of climate change—no matter how green the stuff is. More stuff is just more stuff.

What we need to do is change ourselves and our culture—Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle as Greta Thunberg inspires us. She’s in my book “Girl Power.” And I’ve become a “cultural climat-ist.”

Do you see another Jin In anwhere in this world?

I hope so. Our world is a mess! And I don’t mean just here in the United States with our toxic model of power fueling political division and hatred. Sadly, today conflicts and wars are erupting globally—Ukraine, Israel, and places we may not know much about like Sudan and Yemen.

Victor Hugo said, “Nothing else in the world…not all the armies…is so powerful as an idea whose time has come.” This is Girl Power. Who would have thunk it?! And there has never been a time like right now to be alive and a girl. In fact, it’s the best time to be alive and empowered for every one of us!

So on January 1st, the first day of this year, I woke up with a call to action for our world: do power differently! Toxic, dominating power got us here. The only way to get out of this mess is for every single person to examine their perception of power and then, do it differently. It’s my challenge to you and every one of us!

This requires truly thinking and acting outside the box. There’s a wise Chinese proverb, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” I’d add, transform the whole damn fishing industry. Empowerment is not just about the individual. Sustainability requires an ecosystem, a community.

This brings us back to the third pivotal moment of my disempowerment-empowerment. I noted there were three: The first was my father’s death. The second was my mentor’s death. The third was when I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism a few years after I started 4GGL. Yes, I was literally running out of physical power. It’s when I realized sustainable power, empowerment, it requires an ecosystem. I also realized the only way to truly understand and use power for good is to know powerlessness. Otherwise there is no true empowerment.

Interestingly, I’ve had a relationship with energy my whole life. My name is In Jin. In Korean, you say the last name first. So when I came to the United States and people asked me for my name, I replied, In Jin. They thought “engine.” I also had tons of energy. So I was known as the Energizer bunny, the little engine that could and the back of my letter jacket in high school had “engine” on it!

That is fantastic.

Yes. Energy is a form of power and all forms of power are neither good or bad. It’s how you use them. In fact, I was taught not to hoard power, but make it flow. For example, money is called currency. A mentor of mine taught me that it’s called currency because like water, it is meant to flow—from one person to another. The moment it’s stagnant or hoarded in one place or person, it becomes toxic.

This is empowerment—transformed power. It’s doing power differently: 1.) It’s collective and inclusive, meaning never at the expense of another group; 2.) It’s win-win, not zero sum; 3.) It works to balance power dynamics. This starts with your community, then your nation, then the world. Ultimately, we strive to be one with a power greater than ourselves.

My motto is: Empowered people empower people. I hope this will be on my tombstone!

Visit 4ggl.org. Purchase Jin’s book “Girl Power: Sustainability, Empowerment, and Justice,” the inaugural element in Cambridge University Press Sustainability series investigating persistent, multi-scale challenges to global sustainability and strategies to address them.