8 Young Activists to Know

Activism

Aug 15

Generation Z is one of the most diverse and educated generations in U.S. history and globally. We are also ‘digital natives,’ growing up in a time when activism looks different due to the advent of social media and the internet. We want to spotlight some of the amazing young BIPOC in our generation who are doing the work and changing what it means to be an activist.

Mari Copeny - Age 14

At the age of 8, Mari Copeny began to raise awareness for the rising water crisis in her hometown of Flint, Michigan when she first wrote a letter to President Obama requesting a meeting with him. Upon receiving her letter, Obama visited the city, and once he learned about the lead and other harmful bacteria within the water, the water crisis in Flint was soon after declared a federal state of emergency.

Mari began fundraising efforts to bring clean water to her community, as well as to create her own water filter to remedy the urgent crisis. Over the past six years, Mari has worked hard to raise awareness for other communities throughout the country facing similar water crises and intersectional injustices. Mari explains, "It's not just Flint that has a water crisis. America has a water crisis. People just don't talk about it enough."

Every year, Mari organizes a back-to-school drive in which she raises funds to purchase school supplies and backpacks for students, in order to alleviate the financial burden on parents and to promote accessible education for all. Mari’s drive to serve her community members’ needs is bittersweet, in the sense that her hard work is inspiring, yet it never should have come to the point where an 8-year-old has to hold ignorant politicians accountable for the lacking state infrastructure.

Isra Hirsi - Age 18

As a young Black Muslim woman in the movement for environmental justice, Isra Hirsi knows how important intersectional political education is for young people. In highschool, Isra organized the U.S. Youth Climate Strike alongside her peers at the age of 15. This organization merges political advocacy with direct action through organized strikes and educational workshops.

Supported by her family, particularly her mother, Congressional representative Ilhan Omar, Irsa raises awareness surrounding the impacts of the climate crisis on people of color and poverty-stricken communities. Irsa is committed to putting pressure upon elected officials in order to hold them accountable to enacting policies that address the climate crisis.

Xiye Bastida - Age 19

Born to two environmentalists, Xiye Bastida is an indigenous Mexican and Chilean climate justice advocate whose activism runs deep. As a member of the indigenous Mexican Otomi-Toltec nation, Xiye’s grandmother devoted her energy as a land protector fighting against development on sacred land. In this way, Xiye found it natural to follow in the leadership of her elders as a leading voice for promoting Indigenous and immigrant visibility in the fight for climate justice.

Climate injustice hits home for Xiye. In 2015, her family was forced to relocate to New York in order to escape extreme flooding which devastated their hometown after three years of drought. In high school, she began attending her school’s environmental club, and found it frustrating that her peers were taught to focus on a form of passive activism “that was so catered towards an ineffective way of climate activism, one that blames the consumer for the climate crisis and preaches that temperatures are going up because we forgot to bring a reusable bag to the store.”

In 2019, Xiye collaborated alongside other like-minded young activists to organize the Fridays for Future strike for climate in New York, in which over 300,000 people marched through Wall Street demanding justice and accountability for the looming environmental catastrophe. Although she does not have the ability to vote in the U.S. as a noncitizen, Xiye advocates for pressuring political leaders and elected officials to pay attention to the concerns of constituents, citizens and noncitizens alike.

In 2020, Xiye had the opportunity to give a TED talk in the form of a letter to her abuelita, in which she expressed her deep respect and inspiration for climate justice modeled after her grandmother’s teachings: “I do this work because you showed me that resilience, love and knowledge are enough to make a difference.”

Quannah Chasinghorse - Age 19

Quannah and her mother, Jody Joseph, raise their fists in solidarity with the MMIWG2+ movement for No More Stolen Sisters / Photo via Instagram @quannah.rose

As a member of the Hän Gwich’in and Sicangu/Oglala Lakota nations, Quannah is a climate warrior, land protector, and Indigenous model who is working overtime to redefine western beauty standards, dismantle stereotypes and barriers which harm Indigenous peoples, and promote awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit people. Quannah fights alongside relatives and allies in the Land Back movement.

Quannah and her people’s home is in the Arctic, which is continually under threat by corporations and political regimes that seek to destroy the land and wildlife in order to extract natural resources. Maia Wikler writes that it is "Gwich’in women [who] are leading an intergenerational movement to defend the refuge from oil rigs and wells, all while championing Indigenous rights and justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women." Quannah carries forth the torch set alight by her mom, grandmother, and aunties in order to defend indigenous rights and sacred indigenous lands.

Sophia Kianni - Age 19

Sophia Kianni is an Iranian-American climate justice activist who founded the international youth-led nonprofit organization Climate Cardinals, which focuses on translating climate information into over 100 languages in order to increase accessibility for global environmentalism. Her interest began at a young age, when she visited her family’s hometown Tehran, Iran and witnessed the effects of the “direct existential threat” posed by climate change: “In Iran, where my relatives live, dozens of environmentalists have been jailed, and droughts have almost completely emptied Lake Urmia, once Iran’s largest body of water. The smog that obscured the stars that night in Tehran was a signal that our world is heating up at a terrifying pace.”

In an interview with Refinery 29, Sophia remarks that “Witnessing Iran’s polluted sky in middle school inspired me to begin my environmental advocacy.” Ever since, Sophia has been on the frontlines alongside other youth activists engaging in school strikes, digital strikes, and hunger strikes in order to demand lawmakers take action to address the looming climate emergency. To this day, Sophia continues to hold meetings with lawmakers and politicians, joined in solidarity with other organizers of Fridays for Future and Extinction Rebellion.

Nupol Kiazolu - Age 20

At 12-years-old, after experiencing the devastation of the murder of Trayvon Martin, Nupol found herself organizing a nonviolent protest at her school in which she wore a gray hoodie with the message “Do I Look Suspicious?” written on the back, carrying a bag of skittles and an iced tea. This simple action riled up staff and faculty, and she was forced to defend her actions while facing school suspension. Nupol studied her rights and presented her case to the principal, ultimately kick-starting her career as a political activist and protest organizer.

At the age of 16, Nupol joined the Black Lives Matter movement, and began organizing marches within her community. She also organized the Vote 2000 campaign, which aims to encourage young people of color to register to vote. In summer of 2020, following the murder of Breonna Taylor, Nupol joined communities in Louisville, Kentucky to demand justice. Reflecting on that summer, Nupol explains “I saw so much of myself in her [Breonna]. I believe Black women all across this country can resonate with her story. It doesn't matter if you knew her personally when she was alive, we are all a family and a community.”

Being arrested for nonviolent protest that summer was a radicalizing moment for her, one that showed her the power that comes from vulnerability within community solidarity: “Our strength is what kept us upbeat, we were singing alongside one another, we were getting on the officers’ nerves with our chants and songs of ‘Black Lives Matter’; during our time there we cried and exchanged stories of things we overcame.The experience overall was radicalizing and beautifully painful but I'd do it all over again.”

Maya Penn - Age 21

At age 8, Maya harnessed her knack for creativity with her passion for environmentalism when she created her own line of eco-friendly clothing and accessories called Maya’s Ideas. She even coded her own website in HTML, with help from her father when the coding became complex. In a TED talk that she gave at age 13, Maya reflects on the name of her business: “Ideas can spark a movement. Ideas are opportunities and innovation. Ideas truly are what make the world go round.”

Committed to engaging in sustainable fashion practices, Maya founded a nonprofit organization called Maya's Ideas 4 The Planet, a clothing-related environmentalist group that urges other companies and consumers to choose sustainable fashion alternatives. Other initiatives Maya has started include creating eco-friendly sanitary pads for women and girls living abroad, as well as inspiring girls to pursue STEM/STEAM.

Ofelia Fernández - Age 21

Photo via https://nylacedeno.blogspot.com/ — Photo via Nyla Cedeno

Argentine activist Ofelia Fernández became interested in politics in high school, where she often organized and participated in student strikes while serving as student body president. Ofelia has dedicated herself to defending and supporting feminist rights such as the controversial battle for safe abortion procedures in predominatly-Catholic Argentina. In 2018, Ofelia spoke in front of the National Congress in support of abortion legalization, and a year later, she ran for office as a city legislature. She currently serves as one of the youngest legislators in Latin America, and is a member of the leftist political group Patria Grande Front, which is predominantly composed of other young, feminist, and left-leaning grassroots organizers.

Written by Katelin Cooper and Olivia Deally