The world we live in today is full of challenges. For many, those challenges are exacerbated by conflict. Conflicts can have a devastating impact on societies, causing suffering on a widespread scale. Women and girls are often disproportionately affected.

I am incredibly lucky to live in a (for all intents and purposes) conflict free country. Yes, the United States has significant issues. But it also affords me significant freedoms. Freedoms that I try very hard not to take for granted.

One of the things I'm most grateful for is my ability to freely participate in sport. I've been able to develop into the woman I am today - in part because of the sports I played growing up. In addition to physically strengthening my body, I learned leadership skills and how to be part of a team.

Not everyone around the world is as lucky as me though. And that's why I am so proud to be an Ambassador for Free to Run.

Free to Run supports young women and girls in areas of conflict to help them build leadership skills and improve their physical, emotional, and social wellbeing, through running. They provide the tools to help them become leaders who exercise self-determination, challenge negative norms, and boldly reclaim public spaces. Free to Run members are community leaders, advocates, and role models in their societies, bringing people together across cultural, ethnic, and religious lines. They change views about the roles that women can, and should, play in society.

Free to Run operates in some of the most challenging regions in the world, where decades of conflict and instability have resulted in extreme social isolation for women and girls as well as harassment, constrained mobility, and unequal access to education. This includes places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan.

Please join me in supporting Free to Run and their efforts to support young women and girls in conflict areas around the world.