This TED Talk features social activist Danielle R. Moss, recorded live at TED Women 2018.

So I want to talk to you about the forgotten middle. To me, they're the students, co-workers, and plain old regular folks who are often overlooked because they're seen as neither exceptional nor problematic.

They're the kids we think we can ignore because their needs for support don't seem particularly urgent.

They're the coworkers who actually keep the engines of our organizations running,

but who aren't seen as the innovators who drive excellence.

In many ways, we overlook the folks in the middle

because they don't keep us up awake at night

wondering what crazy thing they're going to come up with next.

And the truth is that we've come to rely on their complacency

and sense of disconnection

because it makes our work easier.

You see, I know a little bit about the forgotten middle.

As a junior high school student, I hung out in the middle.

For a long time, I had been a good student, but seventh grade was a game changer.

I spent my days gossiping, passing notes,

generally goofing off with my friends.

I spent my homework time on the phone reviewing each day's events.

And in many ways, although I was a typical 12-year-old girl,

my ambivalence about my education led to pretty average grades.

Luckily for me, my mother understood something important,

and that was that my location was not my destination.

As a former research librarian and an educator,

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