On the last day of her eighth grade year, Aziya Roberts, 14, found herself leading a march of 150 people through the streets of south side Chicago with signs saying “Black Girls Matter” and “I Will Protect Her” written in bold colors, as honks of support from cars passing by echoed through the air.

Overnight, the teenager had become a community organizer — a title that takes months or even years to achieve — but Aziya had done it in less than a week.

In June, Aziya had seen multiple news reports of missing black girls and women in Chicago and even in her own South Side Chicago neighborhood. Since March, at least six girls and women have been reported missing, and four have been found alive or are believed to be safe. The two others, Sadaria Davis, 15, and Shantieya Smith, 26, were found dead in May and June, respectively.

This sparked an uneasiness within Aziya, who is a young, black girl herself, about how safe she was in her own community — so she took to Facebook to voice her concerns, frustrated with the lack of attention paid to the stories of missing black girls. But her voice offline is what she wanted use to create a movement.

“I wanted to step up and take more responsibility and bring more awareness to the problem,” Aziya tells Teen Vogue. “If it could happen to me, I need to start speaking up.”

In 2017, there were 219,484 black people reported missing in the United States — and black juveniles under 18 years old accounted for 169,426 of those missing people, according to the National Crime Information Center. In the U.S., black and African-American people make up just 13.4 percent of the county’s population, meaning they are disproportionately represented among the country’s missing persons.

After hearing the news about missing girls in her neighborhood, Aziya voluntarily skipped recess and hunkered down indoors to organize the march during the last days of the school year. With the help of her mother, Aziya came up with #WeWalkforHer, a movement to bring awareness to what many perceive is a lack of attention surrounding missing black girls and young women on the South Side of Chicago.

Six days before the march, Aziya met with leaders from the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, a neighborhood group that aims to improve the lives of working and low-income residents through public policy decisions. Aziya grew up watching her grandmother, who was an active member of the organization, participate in a variety of protests, including hunger strikes. So she followed in her grandmother’s footsteps, protesting for better schools and education in front of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s house in February.

But organizing a march in six days meant a challenge for Aziya, who was finishing up her eighth grade year. From posting fliers and sending letters to creating the #WeWalkForHer hashtag and making calls, the heavy workload cast doubt on whether or not Aziya wanted to continue planning the march — but she knew she couldn’t give up on an issue that impacted her community.

“I wanted to make a difference and be a leader — not somebody giving up,” she says.

Her organizing efforts also meant that she missed out on activities with friends, a sacrifice she was more than willing to make. “I could [have fun] any other day — I’ve been doing that for 13 years now,” Aziya says. “I feel like if I don’t step up, I’m going to be too late to do it.”