“I did it!” My son said these three words for the first time, raising his hands in the air in triumph, at the encouraging of Ms. Rachel, her voice supportive and sweet. My husband and I were nearly moved to tears, as we often are, watching our son grow and learn something new each day. “I did it!” He says these words often now. Pouring milk by himself. Pulling on his shoes. The confidence to keep attempting new challenges is just one of many skills we have come to appreciate from his weekly viewings of Ms. Rachel. Beyond the building blocks of words and phrases, her content teaches kindness through action; each lesson is a small seed of humaneness sown through curiosity, a new concept that grows alongside the children who watch her shows. Multiply this concept globally and it’s clear why Rachel Griffin Accurso, known as Ms. Rachel, has in parallel used her multimillion-strong platform of viewers to advocate for issues affecting children around the world. She regularly speaks out, both online and through in-person actions, about issues including warfare, violent immigration policies, and humanitarian crises around the world. Foundationally, it is clear that the care, education and advocacy of children is an inherently political practice for Ms. Rachel, and one that demonstrates how radical it is to actively champion children worldwide. As a Latine American woman and as a child of immigrants, the idea that the familial is a building block of civic life and political life has never been foreign to me. To grapple with and communicate issues of social justice has been a motivating principle since I first took up the mantle of being a journalist. And now, as a mother, the implications of progressive movements for the future are magnified exponentially. It’s fitting then that I find myself turning to Ms. Rachel not only for some of the best educational content for my son but also for a like-minded perspective on navigating the political landscape we now all traverse, with its craggy minefields and complicated pitfalls. Ultimately, when it comes to being a mother to one child or attempting to help children on a planetary scale, the foundational principles are the same. To love a child, to nurture it and protect it from harm, is inherently a political position from which to engage with the world. It is an antiwar proposition. It is an environmentally conscious proposition. It demands equality on the basis of race and gender and ability, on economic status and on birthplace. To truly care for children ultimately renders these political minefields inert, draining them of argument or cause. In recent years, her advocacy has drawn both praise and criticism online and from global politicians and organizations, but she has repeatedly doubled down on the idea that protecting all children, no matter where they are or what their backgrounds are, is paramount to her work.Most recently, Ms. Rachel has drawn condemnation after sharing her thoughts about the tragic death of Mississippi teen Nolan Wells. Although Wells’ official cause of death remains unknown, the investigation has drawn national attention due to race and justice dynamics in the South. One Instagram post from Ms. Rachel read, in part, “We know the investigation and everything that followed would have been different if Nolan Wells were white and his friends were black. Nolan and his family deserve justice.” In a separate post, she wrote, “Black boys deserve to grow up.” Notably, she shared that she spoke directly with Wells’ mother, writing in part, “We are moms. We know that love. We laugh when our babies laugh, we ache when they hurt — we try to do everything possible to protect them. The fact that anyone would send anything other than compassion her way is incomprehensible to me. This mama just lost her baby and deserves to know what happened.” Each of her posts were met with support as well as an onslaught of negative comments.Ms. Rachel is no stranger to backlash for sharing her compassionate insights. Her advocacy of children in Gaza experiencing staggering levels of violence at the hands of Israeli attacks has been met with widespread criticism. Still, despite persistent and ongoing opposition, she has continued to support and uplift children in Gaza. This month, she shared on Threads, “We tell toddlers ‘use your words, not your hands’ while we let grown ups use their bombs, not their words. And the children keep dying.” And in 2024, conservatives called for her show to be boycotted after she posted a video celebrating Pride month. And this week, responding to how she navigates the onslaught of criticism she receives, Ms. Rachel shared, “My sister helped me with this. She told me to keep my focus on the people experiencing injustice, not the backlash. We only have so much energy… I want to use my energy to help others, not to engage with backlash.” In July, Ms. Rachel posted, “I see every child’s and every person’s humanity and I’m not apologizing for that.” It really is as simple as that. RelatedMotherhoodms. rachelWomen's Voices