When I asked 17-year-old Lydia Cleveland if she had any hobbies, she laughed, and said, “Netflix? Or, wait, no — burning the patriarchy!” She’s being modest — the guitar-playing teen interns at a hospital, and aspires to someday be a nurse. She works part-time at a local restaurant, in Midlothian, Virginia, as a hostess. Oh, and she wasn’t kidding about dismantling the patriarchy. National media has covered the teen activist’s every move after she took a stand against administrators at James River High School in protest of their dress code, which she deems sexist and unfair. From an interview with local news all the way to Cosmopolitan, Seventeen Magazine, and the American Civil Liberties Union (where Lydia will be penning an upcoming blog post), she’s prepared to fight for her constitutional rights — including the right to never wear the “shame sweatsuit” currently being used to punish dress code violators at JRHS.
MTV News reached out to James River High School but has not heard back at press time. We did, however, talk to Lydia about how it feels to be a student activist and leader, why feminist causes are so important to her, and why punishing young women by making them wear that sweatsuit is
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