Meghan and Harry in Birmingham. Photo / Getty Images
Meghan and Harry in Birmingham. Photo / Getty Images
A 10-year-old girl with dreams of becoming an actress had a day to remember when she was embraced by Meghan Markle during a walkabout in Birmingham.
Meghan's fiancé Prince Harry pulled astonished Sophia Richards out of the crowd to meet the US actress on the couple's walkabout after she told him of her ambition to follow in the footsteps of the Suits star, reported the Daily Mail.
Sophia looked stunned as she became the envy of her classmates this morning calling it a "dream come true" to meet Meghan, adding: "I will never forget this day."
She said: "Meghan told me that I can achieve whatever I want to achieve. And Meghan said she would like to see me on TV when I become an actress."
Meghan and Harry made the visit, with the aim of inspiring young girls to pursue the "Stem" subjects of science, technology, engineering and maths, attending an event run by social enterprise "Stemettes", which brought together female students from local secondary schools.
The former Suits actress gave advice to aspiring female doctors, engineers and scientists.
Sophia meets the royal couple in Birmingham. Photo / Getty Images
In return, the "Stemettes" said of her picking up an inventing kit: "In the same way that when she wears a dress we all buy it, here she's picked up [the kit] so let's try it. We could follow a different kind of fashion for once."
As Prince Harry and Meghan travelled between tables of students separately, she asked copious questions about what students were doing and how they planned to developed their skills into a career.
Meghan was speaking to Tasneem Chihani, 14, who picked Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon, the founder of the social enterprise 'Stemettes', as her inspiring woman. Meghan nodded and smiled as she said: "A woman in the face of society is seen as one who has to be pretty, thin and quiet.
"The one who dares to fly in the face of all these stereotypes is the best kind of role model a young female can have."
Student Charlotte Highsmith, from Oxford, was overcome with excitement after meeting Meghan and said: "Oh my God, it was worth the wait - I've missed my lecture."
The 20-year-old, who is studying criminology and policing at Birmingham City University, added: "Meghan just thanked us for waiting in the rain for her, but it wasn't a problem."
The former actress joked about the British weather with Canadian student Brandy Davis, 20. Brandy, from Toronto, said: "Meghan came over and we exchanged pleasantries, and I said I was from Canada. She told Harry and he said 'Canadians are everywhere'.
"Then Meghan asked me what I thought about the weather. She said people here complain about the weather, and I said my goodness, they don't know. We Canadians know about the weather. She said 'yes, we're in the same boat'."
Ms Davis, who is studying at Warwick University on exchange from Queens University, Canada, added: "She was absolutely lovely. She had a smile on her face the whole time, and she made a point of going to everyone."
Meghan, who spent time puzzling over instructions to help the girls with their work, said she was impressed with a programme which allowed them to temporarily edit web pages, saying the ability to change untrue information into "something positive" was "so cool".
Meghan said: "I love being here to see this on International Women's Day. You're using your brain in a really challenging way."
Prince Harry told pupils: "You must have brains the size of a planet. And you can't just come in today, do this and leave. You've got to carry it on."
Lauren-Mae Sparrow, 13, caught the interest of Prince Harry after telling an audience she aimed to be an army officer engineer, winning a round of applause as she said: "Should our gender define who we are and what jobs we are allowed to do? I think not."
The royal couple received a huge round of applause from the 90 female students as they made their way to their next event.
They also gave prizes to three winners of a speech-writing competition in which they spoke about their most inspiring women.
Harry and Meghan nodded in approval after each of the speeches and gave all three a generous clap at the end.
