Can you keep up? Take our Speed Reading Challenge with Anne Hathaway’s powerful words about paid family leave, equality, and the freedom to care for our families.
Read one word at a time and follow the red focus letter. Start at Normal playback speed, then slow down or speed up to find your pace. In YouTube, open Settings → Playback speed. Too easy? Try 1.25x, 1.5x, or 2x.
The reading section uses a 200 words-per-minute base cadence, with extra time for punctuation and paragraph pauses. After the spoken introduction and countdown, the exercise is silent so you can focus on reading.
PRACTISE IN THE LIBRARY
Continue practising with Anne Hathaway’s speech in the English Speeches Library:
https://library.englishspeecheschannel.com/speech/anne-hathaway-paid-family-leave
ABOUT THE SPEECH
This challenge uses a 580-word edited reading selection drawn from several sections of Anne Hathaway’s 2017 International Women’s Day address at the United Nations. It follows her journey from becoming a mother to calling for shared caregiving and a fairer future for every family. The selected sections stay in their original order, with light edits for clarity; this is not the complete speech. The speech reflects its historical context.
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CHAPTERS
0:00 How the challenge works
0:23 Start reading
3:43 More from English Speeches
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