Greta Thunberg
With just a placard in hand, on August 20, 2018, a 15-year-old Swede skipped school to protest outside her country’s Parliament demanding proactive measures to tackle climate crisis. In a matter of days, the number of protesters swelled, as students, teachers, and parents joined her. Presently, she marked Fridays for climate protest, and suggested students everywhere take up the “Fridays for Future” campaign by staging walkouts at their own schools. And that is how environmental activist Greta Thunberg made the entire world hear her out. An 18-year-old today, she has ensured that “Fridays For Future” has not just continued where it began but been embraced elsewhere too. In the last three years, she has been the global voice seeking climate change action, and inspired children and adults alike to speak up for the environmental issue. While urging individuals to do what’s kind to the planet she has never shied away from pulling up global leaders for not doing enough for tackling climate change. Clearly, she leads by example. In 2019, to attend the U.N. Climate Summit in the U.S., she sailed for two weeks to reach her destination rather than take the easier option of flying, notorious for its excessive carbon impact. The youngest TIME person of the year (2019), with three consecutive nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize, Greta’s Twitter profile says she has Aspergers, a neurological disorder.
As an environmental activist, concerns on the perils of climate change is not the only thing she’s had to contend with. She’s faced a lot of criticism and hate for questioning global leaders and their lack of will in tackling the environmental issue. The leaders include Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, and former U.S. President and climate change-denier Donald Trump. But gritty Greta is not the one to give up. Armed with awareness, intelligence, statistics, and wit, she has given back as good as she has got without losing her focus on what she has set out to do. With that, she is showing us again and again that she’s more than just a concerned teenager asking irresponsible adults “How Dare You?”
Marley Dias
In an interview in 2017, Marley Dias said, “Frustration is fuel that can lead to the development of an innovative and useful idea”. And that line sums up her initiative. As a 10-year-old in 2015, the avid reader discovered something strange. At home, she was used to seeing black girls and others of diverse origins featured in the books she read. However, at school, the children in the books were white, and invariably boys. A black girl herself residing in the U.S., this lack of diversity bothered her, and she decided it won’t do. And, #1000BlackGirlBooks was born. She decided to gather (largely through donations) 1,000 books featuring black female protagonists, and send them to different places such as libraries and schools around the world. Word got around soon after all, we live in the age of social media and books started 3 reaching her, and how! Over the last six years, she has collected more than 13,000 books and has sent them to several people and places all over the world. According to her website, “Marley was recognized by TIME, as one of the 25 most influential teens in 2018”. She has also been a speaker at several prestigious places and events, including the White House and at the United Nation’s Girl Up programme.
Sixteen years old now, she has published her own book too. With “Marley Dias Gets It Done: And So Can You!”, the teenager hopes to inspire readers through her story. As she said in the same interview, “Kids know that changing the world should not be something that feels imaginary, but something that you have the power to do today and always.” Well, she certainly is inspiring, isn’t she?
Abigail Lupi
Seven-year-old Abigail Lupi was thrilled that she was going to see her great-grandmother for her 100th birthday. The New Jersey-based child learned a few song-and-dance routines and performed them at the assisted-living centre where her great-grandmother lived. As delighted as she was that she could perform that day, the child also did not fail to notice something – several other elderly people living at the home did not have many visitors themselves but were highly enthusiastic and appreciative of the performance they had just watched. It was clear that people at such homes were happier with visitors, company, and some moments of fun and entertainment. This made the Abigail think. She soon founded CareGirlz, a volunteer group comprising girls aged six to 13. They would perform song-and-dance routines at nursing homes, assisted-living centres, and even children’s hospitals in the U.S. State. The children have performed “over 20 shows with a repertoire of 90 different pop and broadway songs”, according to their website. Abigail has been part of 23 of those shows. For CareGirlz and for her talent in singing and dance, she has won several awards.
While it is not clear if CareGirlz and Abigail continue to perform today, what is certain is they have touched many lives with their compassion and sensitivity. “We have been able to bring smiles to over 1000 people!” says CareGirlz website. Just out of teens, Abigail today uses the pronouns they/them for describing self. As a person who has touched so many lives, the use of this pronoun is certain to inspire several others to be inclusive and also embrace their own identity.
Dara McAnulty
His first book “Diary of a Young Naturalist’ was published last year, and with that Dara McAnulty, who was 15 years old then, became the youngest ever winner of the RSPB Medal (awarded annually by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds). He received the Wainwright Prize for UK nature writing in 2020 after being the youngest author to be shortlisted for the award. He is also the youngest author to be long-listed for the 2020 Baillie Gifford Prize for non-fiction.
The 16-year-old naturalist from Northern Ireland was diagnosed as having autism when he was five. In his website he writes that as a person with autism, he struggled with noise and socialising, among others. When they moved from a noisy place to another that offered plenty of spaces “alive with wildlife”, his life changed. The transition neither happened overnight nor was it easy, but it did happen. He found himself relaxing more. After creating his own blog, joining Twitter and interacting with many like-minded people there, he did not feel “so isolated”.
The book tells his story from his 14th birthday to 15th, about how it was a difficult time because that’s when the move happened. But it also narrates how he managed to do it. In essence, the book is not just an inspiration to young lovers of nature and wildlife, but is also a spark of hope and encouragement for those with autism that they “can achieve things”. His next book “Wild Child” is out. And, is unlikely to be his last, since he said in an interview, “I foresee many books, whether published or not, in the future. At least I hope so!” And that’s what we hope too.
Picture Credit : Google
