You probably know Lindsey Morgan best for her role as Raven Reyes in The 100. Raven is a badass fighter who also knows a thing or two about mechanics, explosives and computers. She is basically the type of woman most little girls look up to and want to be.
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Like Raven, Morgan is someone young women should be choosing as their role model. Not only does she inspire as Raven, but she empowers through her everyday life. That’s something Morgan opened up about while talking with SheKnows.
“It doesn’t matter what sex I am. I’m capable of anything,” Morgan powerfully said. “If anything, men can’t do what we can. We’re magical.” That’s something she also wants girls to know, especially if they find a passion in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
Far too often are women are seen as incapable of having a STEM-related career. Unfortunately, there are even those who believe there should be a limit to how many women hold a job involving math or science. Apparently, for some, if you want to focus on science, math, technology or and/or engineering, you must be a man.
That’s not what Morgan believes, especially as someone who plays a woman who’s passionate about all of those subjects. “I think science is sexy and it kind of kills me that in our society that we don’t revere that for women or we don’t encourage women to explore that,” she said. “I think it’s ridiculous. So, I do hope that Raven inspires girls that are interested in STEM to keep pursuing their dreams and other girls that are, like, ‘That’s pretty cool, I want to be an astronaut.'”
Speaking of becoming an astronaut, one day we just might see Morgan up in space. No, we don’t mean as Raven, but in real life. “If anything, Raven’s inspired me to be an astronaut,” she revealed. “I tweeted the space camp and now I think I’m going to space camp this year.” How amazing is that?
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For Morgan, one of the many reasons she loves playing Raven is because of how much she influences others. “I hope Raven can be a trendsetter in that sense,” Morgan said. “We need to see much more women in these very science- and mathematic-oriented roles.”
It’s something she tries to integrate into her life whenever she gets the chance. Specifically, Morgan likes to inspire girls through activism. She said, “Maybe a year or so ago, we were doing this big charity project for The 100 during our hiatus, and every month different cast members had a month and they were raising money for charities they were passionate about.”
Morgan chose to focus on one all about young girls who love coding. “I was raising one for girls who code. It was about women all in STEM research and they would get scholarships and they would fund girls who wanted to go further in those fields.” It’s something she hopes to do again soon during her free time.
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In addition to pushing girls to follow their dreams, Morgan also wants them to recognize how powerful their minds are. She also wants those with disabilities to know they can do whatever they put their minds to. It’s something that Raven demonstrates with each new episode of The 100.
Ever since Murphy shot Raven in the leg, which left her with nerve damage, she’s been living with a disability. Being disabled has also taught Raven how to use her mind to fight back since she cannot physically go into battle as often as she formerly did.
“Because of her leg injury, it’s physically benched her from a lot of the adventures and fights,” Morgan said. “At first, I was kind of like, ‘Oh, that kind of sucks,’ because I have a lot of scenes where I’m alone.” Eventually, the former General Hospital star recognized Raven’s disability was a powerful thing.
“But then I realized, ‘Wow, this is exactly what people with handicaps or disabilities feel like,'” she said. “They feel benched and that sucks. It’s a terrible feeling and I can now totally empathize on a whole ‘nother level, but the best thing about Raven is she found a way to be even more useful than being out in the field.” She does that often with her mind, like when she fixes the radio, ensures the walkie-talkies work and when she walked Clarke through the City of Light to save everyone on Earth.
With her leg injury, Raven also shows others that you don’t have to be physically badass to be a leader or a hero. “What I love about Raven and her disability is that she can show a whole new audience and everyone that you don’t need to have amazing fighting skills or huge muscles or both your legs to kick ass,” Morgan noted. “Raven kicks ass by being Raven and by using her mind. If anything, your mind is your most important tool, I find. Raven really promotes that, intelligence. I think that’s badass.”
Not only is it a great thing to see an empowering female character on TV, but it’s also inspiring to see that the actress who plays her is trying to make the world a better place for young women.
You can catch Morgan inspire weekly as Raven when The 100 airs Wednesday at 9/8c on The CW.
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