Julieta Núñez Cárcamo: “No girl should limit her dreams because of where she was born”

^{Photo: Julieta Núñez Cárcamo}

Julieta is 18 years old and lives in Quellón, Chiloé, in southern Chile. Her journey in youth leadership began through innovation, education and technology initiatives led by Fundación País Digital. In 2024, she participated in its Summit as a panellist in a discussion on the future of education and later became a national finalist in Solve for Tomorrow, an initiative of Samsung and Fundación País Digital.

Today, she is the Southern Zone Leader of Girl Up Chile, co-founder of a Girl Up Climate Action Club, and a member of the UNICEF Chile Youth Council for the 2026–2027 term and the UN Chile Youth Network. Through these spaces, she works to expand youth participation and reduce territorial and gender gaps.

“If I could change one thing today to ensure that girls and adolescent girls have more equitable opportunities, I would change all those expectations imposed on us from the time we are little: how we are supposed to be, what we are expected to do, or even being told that certain issues are not for us,” she says.

Growing up in southern Chile has also made decentralization a central part of her activism. Julieta works to ensure that educational, technological and participation opportunities reach young people in different parts of the country and that their voices are heard in the spaces where decisions are made.

“I want no girl to grow up afraid to speak up, take up space, make mistakes or dream big. I want us to be able to grow up feeling safe, with access to real opportunities and, above all, with the freedom to choose who we want to be and the path we want to build,” she says.

For Julieta, advancing gender equality also requires challenging the expectations that continue to shape the decisions of girls and adolescent girls and creating the conditions for them to discover their own abilities.

“No one should tell a girl who she has to be. As a society, our role is to support them and open doors for them, so that each girl can discover how far she wants to go,” she says.

On this International Day of the Girl, Julieta is carrying that message from Chiloé to other communities: “I want more girls, boys and adolescents to dare to speak up, participate and believe that where they come from should not determine how far they can go.”