The S.H.E. Project is a feminist and left-of-center nonprofit focused on helping women develop self-defense, professional, and public-speaking skills. “S.H.E.” stands for “Strength,” “Honor,” and “Eloquence.” ¹

Beyond its focus on cultivating skills in young women, the S.H.E. Project also embraces environmentalist climate activism, ² including so-called “Black Friday” protests in which activists march through cities in black, sometimes carrying an empty coffin, symbolically holding a funeral for the Earth in the face of climate change. ³

Founding and History

The S.H.E. Project was founded by 16-year-old Aaryana Sethi to promote confidence and character building in young women. ⁴ Sethi is a third-degree black belt and national gold medalist in Tae Kwon Do, and left-of-center social-policy advocate. ⁵ Sethi graduated from Hathaway Brown School, a private girls’ school outside of Cleveland, Ohio, in 2021 and was a Yale Young Global Scholar in 2019. ⁶ Sethi attends Oxford University in the United Kingdom. ⁷

The S.H.E. Project appears to have become less active. In October 2019, the organization stated it would make bi-weekly posts on the publishing platform Medium ⁸ that would feature a rotating list of young women writers from around the globe. ⁹ The blog has been inactive since December 2019. ¹⁰ Likewise, in the “Partnership” section on the S.H.E. Project website, the third and final “partner” features filler text as of June 2023. ¹¹

Activities and Partnerships

The S.H.E Project offers workshops to help young women grow in its focus areas of “strength,” “honor,” and “eloquence.” For strength, the organization promotes workshops in self-defense training. The organizations focus on “Honor” centers on professional development, including workshops on job interviews, professionalism, and networking. Lastly, to promote eloquence, S.H.E. project offers public speaking training. ¹²

The S.H.E. Project has two main partner organizations. The first is Panchsheel Activism, a group of predominantly student-age individuals devoted to promoting peaceful relations between China and India. S.H.E. Project founder Aaryana Sethi is the U.S. regional lead for Panchsheel Activism. ¹³ The second partner organization is Catalyst, another student organization created to promote student journalism. ¹⁴

Activism

Outside of its focus areas on self-defense, professional development, and public speaking, the S.H.E. Project also promotes radical climate change activism. In one of the organizations few public blog posts, author Olivia Gyapong associated with the S.H.E. project wrote of the Fridays for Future movement (FFF), an activist organization that hosts so called “Black Friday” protest events to bring awareness to climate change. ¹⁵

At one event in Washington, D.C., the S.H.E Project wrote about how many activists wore veils or painted black “tears” on their faces. The activists then laid on the ground in front of the U.S. Capitol Building before marching through the streets of Washington chanting and holding a coffin in a symbolic “’funeral’ for the planet.” ¹⁶ FFF hosts regular “die-in” protests that begin with a local Native American acknowledging “indigenous people’s plight to recover and protect lands stolen from them” followed by speeches and marches. ¹⁷

FFF is reportedly inspired by Greta Thunberg, a left-of-center climate activist from Sweden. ¹⁸

1. “The S.H.E. Project.” The S.H.E. Project. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.thesheproject.org/home
2. Gyapong, Olivia. “This is What Democracy Looks Like: Inside the Climate Action Movement.” The S.H.E. Project. December 3, 2019. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.thesheproject.org/features/this-is-what-democracy-looks-like-inside-the-climate-action-movementnbsp.
3.  Gyapong, Olivia. “This is What Democracy Looks Like: Inside the Climate Action Movement.” The S.H.E. Project. December 3, 2019. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.thesheproject.org/features/this-is-what-democracy-looks-like-inside-the-climate-action-movementnbsp.
4. “The S.H.E. Project.” The S.H.E. Project. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.thesheproject.org/home
5. The SHE Project. “What Does S.H.E. Stand For?” Medium, October 23, 2019. https://medium.com/@thesheproject/what-does-s-h-e-stand-for-6907ea8fd8aa
6. “Aaryana Sethi.” Yale Young Global Scholars. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://globalscholars.yale.edu/aaryana-sethi.
7. “Aaryana Sethi.” LinkedIn. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaryana-sethi-000956183/.
8. The S.H.E. Project. “What Does S.H.E. Stand For?” Medium. October 23, 2019. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://medium.com/@thesheproject/what-does-s-h-e-stand-for-6907ea8fd8aa.
9.  “Aaryana Sethi.” Yale Young Global Scholars. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://globalscholars.yale.edu/aaryana-sethi.
10. “The S.H.E. Project.” Medium. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://medium.com/@thesheproject.
11. “Our Partners.” The S.H.E. Project. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.thesheproject.org/partners.
12. “The S.H.E. Project.” The S.H.E. Project. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.thesheproject.org/home
13. “About Us.” Panchsheel Activism. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.panchsheelactivism.org/about-us.
14. “Our Partners.” The S.H.E. Project. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.thesheproject.org/partners.
15. Gyapong, Olivia. “This is What Democracy Looks Like: Inside the Climate Action Movement.” The S.H.E. Project. December 3, 2019. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.thesheproject.org/features/this-is-what-democracy-looks-like-inside-the-climate-action-movementnbsp.
16. Gyapong, Olivia. “This is What Democracy Looks Like: Inside the Climate Action Movement.” The S.H.E. Project. December 3, 2019. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.thesheproject.org/features/this-is-what-democracy-looks-like-inside-the-climate-action-movementnbsp.
17. Gyapong, Olivia. “This is What Democracy Looks Like: Inside the Climate Action Movement.” The S.H.E. Project. December 3, 2019. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.thesheproject.org/features/this-is-what-democracy-looks-like-inside-the-climate-action-movementnbsp
18. Gyapong, Olivia. “This is What Democracy Looks Like: Inside the Climate Action Movement.” The S.H.E. Project. December 3, 2019. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.thesheproject.org/features/this-is-what-democracy-looks-like-inside-the-climate-action-movementnbsp.