Amal Clooney, Melinda French Gates, and Michelle Obama on Their Fight to End Child Marriage: Exclusive

glamour.com:

, , and to Malawi and then to Cape Town, and to see the power of female philanthropy and their commitment to girls' education.

You could feel the electric energy in the crowd as the schoolgirls—all in freshly laundered uniforms—had found out only hours earlier who, exactly, was coming to visit.Clooney, Gates and Obama had chosen the Ludzi school—in Mchinji, a town located in the Central Region of Malawi—because of its longstanding support of the nonprofit organization Advancing Girls’ Education in Africa (AGE Africa), whose goal is to provide education, mentoring opportunities, and scholarships to vulnerable young women across 47 Malawian public secondary schools.In this Glamour exclusive, we delve into the personal and professional relationships of three of the most well-known women in the world, have meaningful conversations with local schoolgirls, and talk to prominent lawyers and activists about what it will take to, once and for all, eradicate child marriage globally.First things first: Yes, they’re on first-name terms with one another.Amal, Melinda, and Michelle huddled together, in displays of easy friendship, is a sight to behold: the communal comforting of women in tears sharing their stories in the library of the Ludzi school.

Their warmth in toasting one another’s teams at the end of the week over South African wine. A tight-knit circle of kindred spirits sharing special moments. (Obama even at one point catches Clooney mid-stumble as they walk on stage to do a panel in Cape Town.)Their star power is undeniable, and they’ve each commanded countless column inches.

Of the three of them, two are accomplished lawyers (one married a man who would become the first Black president in US history; the other, a.