Tapping Into Girl Power

When she was 12 years old, Izza Izelan started a club called Great Girls Club where she and other girls in her neighourhood created their own great adventures—going up and down hills on their bicycles, selling cookies, and they even have their own march and song. “We were really happy,” reminisces Izza. “We realised that there was no such community for young girls like that, which encourages girls to be active and do sports, so that’s what we did.”

Having gone to an all-girls school and joined the Girl Guides, she hadn’t given a thought about gender disparity until she enrolled into a co-ed boarding school in Pahang. There she noticed that stereotypical views about gender roles ran deep; for instance, class monitors or head students typically had to be boys while girls become the assistants. Izza recalls signing up for marching band wanting to play the drums but she was