The sudden gains of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders's campaign last month were punctuated by a series of awkward confrontations with Black Lives Matter protesters, causing some to question whether the progressive candidate was serious about addressing racial inequality and injustice. Then, on July 23, the campaign hired a young 25-year-old black activist named Symone Sanders, a former communications officer with Ralph Nader's Public Citizen, a Black Lives Matter supporter, and a youth chair for the Coalition for Juvenile Justice. She immediately created a bridge between activists and the Sanders campaign, and helped put out a policy on addressing racial inequality.

But there's still an uphill battle for the senator and his grassroots campaign, which rejects super PAC funding (the kind of funding that wins politicians elections) and will need to broaden the senator's appeal beyond its mostly liberal white supporters. As the national press secretary, Symone Sanders will very much be in the foreground of the campaign as it seeks to spread the senator's message — and his appeal. She spoke to Cosmopolitan.com about her new position, the Black Lives Matter movement, and her advice for young women and girls who want to get involved in politics.

Tell me about how you met Bernie Sanders.

I worked for Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, which is a consumer advocacy think tank, but we worked on global trade issues. Sen. Sanders is a champion of trade, so he's like a work hero. I'd been following what he's doing. The campaign reached out to me. They said they came across my résumé and they liked what they saw, so they wanted to bring me in and have a conversation, so I sat down; I talked to the campaign manager. Then I met with the communications director and we chatted. And then I didn't hear anything.

About two weeks after that, I got a call on my cell phone. It was a blocked number. I said, "Hello?" The caller said, "Oh, this is an aide for Sen. Sanders. We're just wondering if you had time to meet with him today." Of course, I made time for the senator. We met, we sat down for an hour and a half, and had a great conversation, and he asked me if I was still interested in working on the campaign and I was like, "You know, I think that would be of interest to me." I officially had a job offer a couple of days after that.

What's your role in the campaign?

I serve as the national press secretary for Sen. Sanders's presidential campaign. What that means is I am the on-the-record spokeswoman for the campaign. So I do a lot of media interaction. I reach out to reporters; I talk to them about stories. When they call and they ask the campaign for a comment, I am one of the people — I can speak on behalf of the senator. I spend a lot of time on the phone with reporters. I spend a lot of time listening to the news shows, reading articles, and if I see something I don't like, I call some reporters up and sometimes we have [to ask reporters] to do corrections. A lot of what I do is about being proactive on the media front. I'll be doing some national TV shows; I do radio. I have the privilege of being the senator's mouthpiece. So when you can't talk to the senator, you can talk to me.

Sen. Sanders seemed especially impressed by your experience with criminal justice and racial inequality. What's your background with criminal justice issues?

I've been working on juvenile justice issues for the past five or six years. As the youth chair for the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, it is my job to advocate for young people's voices at the table when they're talking about juvenile justice reform. I get to be the spokesperson for young people across the country in terms of what we need to be doing to make the juvenile justice realm better. So that entails youth engagement — actually having young people involved in writing the policies. Getting their feedback in the thought process, in the active execution process, in the evaluation process afterward. You're also advocating for a lot of better policies within the actual juvenile institutions.

What's the relationship between the campaign and the Black Lives Matter movement?

I think it is important to note that the Black Lives Matter movement is a movement — so there's not necessarily one big organization that any one campaign is reaching out to and having a conversation and saying, "Oh, we talked to Black Lives Matter." I do want to make that distinction. But we have reached out and we have spoken with activists who identify with the Black Lives Matter movement and we shared our policy platforms with them; we've solicited their feedback, and we're going to continue to keep the door open and keep the conversation going. We released our racial justice issues platform this past weekend and that was well received, but that's just the beginning. So the door's definitely open. We want to hear from activists in the Black Lives Matter movement. We are definitely in contact and are going to continue to reach out, because these issues that the movement is raising are definitely important and they are important to the senator. He cares about criminal justice reform. He cares about reducing the mandatory minimum. He cares about giving the atrocity that is the mass incarceration of African Americans. He is committed to his work.

How will Sen. Sanders expand his predominantly white base?

I think it's important to note that it's still early in the game. It is only August. So, for folks to say that Bernie Sanders isn't polling well with African American voters, it's still early. African American voters and other constituencies of young people — we've got bring our message to them. In terms of how we're going to do that, we are actively reaching out. We'll be in South Carolina this month, and we have a whole operation where we're taking our message and bringing it to the people. Not just African Americans, but women and Millennials. We're going to talk about the issues that are important to them. What's great about our campaign is, the broad platform that we have, the issues that the senator's talking about on the campaign trail, those are the things folks are talking about at the dinner table. Those are the conversations they're having with their friends. These are the things they're concerned about. They're concerned about jobs. They're concerned about money. People are concerned about racial injustice. These are hot-button issues. I think that once more people know who Bernie Sanders is, they're going to like what they see.

His grassroots efforts have inspired a lot of people to help out. One group of supporters even launched a website about his policies. How do these efforts by supporters work into your strategy?

I'll say this: We're excited that people are turning their passion into action. We're glad that people are so excited that they want to move and make things happen right now, but we definitely want people to join our campaign officially by going to www.BernieSanders.com and signing up, or by texting "Bernie" at 82623, which signs them up for updates and has tangible ways to get involved. These things, like FeelTheBern.org and all these things that keep popping up — that is evidence of the fire that Sen. Sanders's campaign has lit across this country.

What advice would you have for young women and girls who want to become politically active?

We need young women in organizing work. We need them doing this political policy work. First, I would encourage them to seek out organizations that are involved in something that they're interested in. So Coalition for Juvenile Justice is one of the organizations that I'm passionate about. But I'm also very passionate about Girls Inc, a nonprofit organization that services girls across the country, ages 6 to 18. Their motto is incredible: inspiring girls to be "strong, smart and bold." I got involved with these organizations, and then I let the leadership of these organizations know that, "Hey, I'm here to be helpful, I'm here to be effective." My motto is: If you knock on the door a couple of times, and they don't let you in, you have to run around the back, hop through the back window, find the room that they're in, and pull up a seat to the table and let them know that you're here.

The next thing I would say is, be vocal about what your goals are. I've always told people that I want to do communications and I want to be in politics. Those are things I want to do, and I wasn't shy about it. People were clear about what my goals were, so a lot of times people in the community or in school, they'd say things like, "Oh! I remember you said X, Y, Z," and because I was committed and I kept showing up, steadfast and consistent in my interest, they shared opportunities with me. Don't be afraid to show up. Don't be afraid to not only sit at the table, but to speak up when you're at the table, because your voice is valuable and important.

Follow Prachi on Twitter.

Prachi Gupta Prachi Gupta is an award-winning journalist based in New York.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io