Newport Woman Graces Cover of Seventeen Magazine

Lindsay Brown, 21, gave up a full Notre Dame scholarship to teach soccer to girls in underdeveloped parts of the world. It was that personal sacrifice and dedication to building confidence in underprivileged girls that earned the Newport Beach native the cover of Seventeen Magazine's October Issue, which hit newsstands today.

Brown was selected out of thousands of young women as the winner of the magazine's Pretty Amazing Cover Contest.  Readers, the magazine's editor-in-chief, actress Emma Roberts and Neutrogena Brand Ambassador Jared Eng chose the winner. Brown also received a $20,000 scholarship from Neutrogena.

Last summer Brown started the first-ever girls soccer team at the Kopila Valley School in Nepal, and in 2010 held bake sales with her friends, raising $1,000 which paid for school supplies, food and tuition for the girls. She is currently working on similar programs in Kenya and Cambodia and has plans to expand to other parts of the world.

"Girls in Nepal are viewed as a burden instead of a gift. They are some of the strongest little girls I have ever met," Brown, a junior studying international relations at the University of Notre Dame, told Patch. "They carry firewood all day. Some of them are domestic servants, and some don't even live at home, yet they are so resilient."

After her trip to Nepal in 2011, Brown decided to retire from soccer and focus solely on creating her non-profit, the SEGway Project, which works to empower girls through academics and athletics by helping them escape the cycle of poverty and focus on developing life skills.

"I have been on a soccer team since I was 5, so I do miss it sometimes, but now these little girls are my new team," Brown said. "I hope to help empower them and instill self-confidence and leadership skills so these girls can segue into leaders in the classroom and in the community."

Ann Shoket, the magazine's editor-in-chief, says Brown serves as an amazing role model to the girls she is helping around the world.

“What set Lindsay apart was her selfless devotion to helping other girls understand their power in the world,” Shoket said. “She made tremendous personal sacrifice—giving up a full scholarship to Notre Dame and resigning from the soccer team she loved.”

Brown says she is ecstatic to be Seventeen's October covergirl, but more importantly to use her voice in America to bring change to other parts of the world.

"I am so excited about being able to share my story in Seventeen Magazine and the platform it provides," Brown explained. "These girls in Nepal have been through so much at 8-years-old. They have no electricity and no water. They are wise beyond their years, and I will never go through one day like theirs."

Along with developing her non-profit and working on a girls soccer academy in Kenya, Brown hopes to attend graduate school and dreams of a career in policy-making for the United Nations.

If you would like to contribute to Brown's non-profit, visit thesegwayproject.org/how-you-can-help.