What if a single word could instantly divide a room… even though it was created to bring people together?

In this thought-provoking TED-Ed style talk, 15-year-old speaker Myrah Kathpalia explores the powerful and misunderstood “F-word” — a word often debated, judged, and misunderstood in today’s world. Through honest reflections, relatable experiences, and meaningful insights, Myrah invites us to rethink what this word truly means and why understanding it matters now more than ever.

✨ This talk is about:

• Breaking stereotypes and misconceptions

• Understanding fairness and equality

• Encouraging open-minded conversations

• Seeing the world through a different perspective

• Building connection instead of division

💬 “A word that should mean fairness… not conflict.”

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About Speaker : Myrah Kathpalia, 15 Years Old
About Speaker : Hi, I’m Myrah- always the one with the loudest laugh in the room. I love talking so much that some might say I never stop, and I’m always looking forward to meet people with the same energy as me. I am passionate about sparking genuine conversations, especially the ones that make us see the world a little differently.

About talk: Imagine a word designed to bring people together, yet somehow it sparks arguments and instant divide. A word meant to represent fairness, but instead many hear it as a challenge. My talk is about that powerful and misunderstood F- word and how we can finally understand it together.

The Bookosmia TED-Ed Club is a youth-driven public speaking and idea-sharing initiative aligned with Bookosmia’s mission: “Every young voice matters.”

TED-Ed is TED’s youth and education initiative. TED-Ed’s mission is to spark and celebrate the ideas of teachers and students around the world. Everything we do supports learning — from producing a growing library of original animated videos, to providing an international platform for teachers to create their own interactive lessons, to helping curious students around the globe bring TED to their schools and gain presentation literacy skills, to celebrating innovative leadership within TED-Ed’s global network of over 650,000 teachers. TED-Ed has grown from an idea worth spreading into an award-winning education platform that serves millions of teachers and students around the world every week.

Email to sara@booksmia.com

#TEDed #TEDTalk #FWord #Equality #Fairness #YouthSpeaker #MyrahKathpalia #MotivationalTalk #InspiringYouth #PublicSpeaking #Mindset #ConversationsThatMatter #TeenSpeaker #Bookosmia

Transcript

The last time I told someone I’m a feminist, they looked at me and said, “So, you hate men?”

I just froze. Did I hear that right? But that moment made something very clear.

People don’t reject feminism because they dislike equality.

They reject it because they don’t understand it at all. They think or they have been taught that feminism is a fight for superiority between genders.

Now tell me honestly what’s the first thing that came to your mind when you realize that this talk is about feminism?

If your brain immediately whispered, “Oh no, not this again.” Then don’t worry,you are in the majority. You’re not alone. That reaction isn’t the problem

It’s a symptom of the problem.

For centuries, feminism has been utterly misunderstood.

It’s 2025 and somehow people still believe that feminism means female superiority.

secondsYou know, somewhere along the way, the concept of feminism ended up with a bad marketing team. The meaning is great, but the messaging a total disaster.

So let’s clear the air. According to the dictionary, feminism means the advocacy of women’s rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes.

Equality, not revenge, not sority, not anti- anyone.Did you hear hate men anywhere in that definition? Exactly.

So where did we lose the meaning of feminism? Let’s understand it by going back a bit.

Feminism started with simple goals. The right to vote, the right to learn, the right to be able to express your opinions. No secret agenda. Just basic human rights.
But over time, what began as a movement for equal human rights became tangled in stereotypes and misbeliefs.Social media added fuel to the fire and turned feminism into a topic of debate with all the wrong facts or meanings.And that’s how feminism became the misunderstood effort

Now like we went back in time, let me take you in the times to come. Think about the next generations. If the girlsare taught that feminism is something you have to whisper about and the boys learn that it’s something to roll youreyes at, how will the gender wars ever stop?

Imagine younger kids growing up thinking that feminism is another bad effort.So here’s the real question. How do we fix the branding? I  think it starts in three places. First one is schools. Feminism shouldn’t be a chapter you rush through before an exam. It should be taught as a foundation for empathy.Why human rights exist and why they matter.The second one is homes. If only one gender cooks, cleans or makes decisions.That’s not tradition. That’s a lesson. And kids learn it very quickly.The third one is our own minds. Even today, many people picture a man when they hear doctor and a woman when they hear nurse. Does that happen to you too?

If so, this calls for a mindset shift.

I personally have heard comments in school like girls can throw dodgeballs and I usually throw pretty solid one.It’s about breaking boundaries and stereotypes that have become the norm. We have to start with things as basic.So before I end, let me clear up a few myths. Feminism is not a girls club.It’s not pink glitter, tiaras, or Barbie aesthetics.

And being a man does not disqualify you from being a feminist.Being a feminist simply means you’re supporting basic human rights.

It means women don’t have to hide their ambitions and men don’t have to hide their emotions. So when we redefine feminism as basic human rights and something that benefits all, then it stops being the f word people whisper, but the f word people live by. F for feminism is simply F for fairness.