Happy International Women's Day!

I feel privileged to be a woman despite the many challenges that women face around the globe.

The plight of women is real but I am learning that every challenge is an opportunity for growth. Women face the challenges of sex trafficking, domestic violence, sexual harassment, workplace discrimination, and limitations on reproductive rights, just to name a few. While there is still much room for improvement for many of the world's women, we must not forget that women and men have grown over time in the reach for gender equality. Sometimes in our noble ambition to look towards the future it is all too easy to disregard the past. We focus on how far we have to go(and we should) and stop appreciating the rights that we do have now that many women fought tirelessly to grant us.

Perhaps it is easy for me to say this because I am an American woman in the Millennial generation but that is precisely why I am saying what I am. I did not have to fight for my right to vote, I was never denied employment because I had children, or was told my only value and true identity was living in the shadow of a man.

I am speaking to the younger generations when I invite women to have gratitude and count our blessings. But perhaps the riskier choice is contentment and settling. The danger of focusing too much on what has been already won is abandoning the future victories that we have yet to win. American women today are still raped, abused, harassed, and discriminated against. Gratitude isn't enough; we need attitude. Women--and men for that matter-- need to get mad, offended, and saddened by the atrocities that women face, not just in this country, but around the world.

This is why gratitude must be matched with the force of fierce ambition and commitment. One woman is a force all of her own, and she can use that force to pay it forward and follow in the footsteps of her valiant sisters who came before her. I urge young women to find gratitude for the past and use their attitude to shape the future of the world's women.

Millennials, it's our turn to take the torch! My motto for Women's History Month 2016: gratitude and attitude!

By Danielle Craig.