Kirsten Gillibrand, Democratic candidate for president, speaks at Ann Richards School

AUSTIN -- One year and 11 days before what promises to be a wild and woolly, and maybe even pivotal, Texas primary, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand visited students at the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders in what she hopes will prove a moment that, if she fulfills her ambition to become the first female U.S. president, every girl there Thursday can talk about for the rest of her life.

“The light in your eyes can change the world,” Gillibrand told the 570 eighth- to 12th-grade students assembled in the cafeteria at the South Austin school and an additional 300 sixth- and seventh-graders watching a livestream in their classrooms.

Gillibrand — who in 2009 was named to fill the unexpired Senate term of Hillary Clinton when President Barack Obama named Clinton secretary of state, and has twice been re-elected — told the young women that the younger among them may hold the highest ambitions.

“Sometime as you turn 12, 13, 14, 15, the girlhood bravado begins to fade and then you begin to doubt yourself,” she said.

Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/20190221/kirsten-gillibrand-democratic-candidate-for-president-speaks-at-ann-richards-school