--- title: Hillary Clinton Girls: Survey Says Teens Inspired description: Teenage girls say Hillary Clinton makes them feel better, while Donald Trump makes them feel worse. canonical: https://time.com/4558344/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-teen-girls-survey/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-04T15:20:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:22.159Z article:section: Politics og:title: Teen Girls Say Clinton Inspires, Trump Makes Them Insecure og:description: 42% say Trump makes them feel bad about their bodies. og:url: https://time.com/4558344/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-teen-girls-survey/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfdab79a9c73af23c/6988ac8f656a3fad99bcdaf9/45-characters-election-22.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: 45 CHARACTERS ELECTION og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Teen Girls Say Clinton Inspires, Trump Makes Them Insecure twitter:description: 42% say Trump makes them feel bad about their bodies. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfdab79a9c73af23c/6988ac8f656a3fad99bcdaf9/45-characters-election-22.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Teen Girls Say Hillary Clinton Inspires Them and Donald Trump Makes Them Feel Insecure  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Nov 4, 2016 3:20 PM UTC  Hillary Clinton gets a hug from fifth-grader Hannah Tandy during a town hall meeting at Keota High School, on Dec. 22, 2015, in Keota, Iowa. Hillary Clinton gets a hug from fifth-grader Hannah Tandy during a town hall meeting at Keota High School, on Dec. 22, 2015, in Keota, Iowa.Charlie Neibergall—AP  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Nov 4, 2016 3:20 PM UTC Even if they can’t vote, teenage girls are closely following this election. And many say Hillary Clinton makes them feel better, while Donald Trump makes them feel worse. According to an online poll conducted for the [New York _Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/05/upshot/it-really-does-get-into-your-head-the-election-through-the-eyes-of-teenage-girls.html?action=click&contentCollection=upshot®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront), nearly a quarter of teenage girls say Clinton’s candidacy has encouraged them to seek leadership positions, but nearly half say Trump’s comments have negatively affected the way they think about their bodies. “That hits me hard when people like Trump say people who are skinnier than I am are too big,” Morgan Lesh, 15, of Moro, Oregon told the [_Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/05/upshot/it-really-does-get-into-your-head-the-election-through-the-eyes-of-teenage-girls.html?action=click&contentCollection=upshot®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront). “It makes me feel extremely insecure about myself.” According to a recent Pew study, 60% of voters said Trump has little or no respect for women. According to the New York _Times_ poll, 22% of teenage girls surveyed said Clinton’s run has encouraged them to want to be leaders, while 27% said Trump’s candidacy made them less likely to seek leadership roles. Almost all the girls had heard Trump’s comments about women, 42% said those comments had negatively affected the way they think about their bodies. 83% said a candidate’s gender makes no difference in running for political office (10% said it was easier as a man) and 89% said a woman would make just as good of a president as a man. Feminism is especially popular among young women, with 63% of women aged 18-34 identifying as a “feminist” or a “strong feminist,” according to a January poll from the [Washington _Post_.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/feminism-project/poll/) “Feminism” was defined as the “belief in the political, social, and economic equality of men and women.” \[[NYT](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/05/upshot/it-really-does-get-into-your-head-the-election-through-the-eyes-of-teenage-girls.html?action=click&contentCollection=upshot®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4558344/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-teen-girls-survey/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4558344/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-teen-girls-survey/"},"headline":"Teen Girls Say Hillary Clinton Inspires Them and Donald Trump Makes Them Feel Insecure","datePublished":"2016-11-04T15:20:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:22.159Z","description":"42% said Trump's comments made them feel worse about their bodies","url":"https://time.com/4558344/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-teen-girls-survey/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","feminism","2016 Election","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfdab79a9c73af23c/6988ac8f656a3fad99bcdaf9/45-characters-election-22.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfdab79a9c73af23c/6988ac8f656a3fad99bcdaf9/45-characters-election-22.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"45 CHARACTERS ELECTION","caption":"Hillary Clinton gets a hug from fifth-grader Hannah Tandy during a town hall meeting at Keota High School, on Dec. 22, 2015, in Keota, Iowa.","creditText":"Charlie Neibergall—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4558344/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-teen-girls-survey/","name":"Teen Girls Say Hillary Clinton Inspires Them and Donald Trump Makes Them Feel Insecure"}}]}] ```