For most people the teenage years are filled with standard challenges. Exams. Dating. The usual.
These 10 teens, however, are changing the world. Check them out!
Autumn Peltier | Clean Water Activist
Canada’s Autumn Peltier is an indigenous “water warrior” who has spoken at the UN about the destruction of the water resources in her native Canada and beyond.
She wants everyone to have long term access to clean drinking water and reliable water resources.
Greta Thunberg | Environmental Activist
The world’s most famous teen activist. Greta Thunberg dropped out of school to spread her environmental message and has appeared at the UN and on the news in nearly every country on earth.
Shana Grant | Anti-Violence Activism
Shana took up her anti-violence mantle when her friend Zaire died from a shooting in which a teenager tried to rob him.
She was just 17 when that happened and though she has spent her time working on breaking the school to prison pipeline and that makes her one of our teens changing the world – she is off to college soon in Atlanta, Georgia to become a doctor.
She says she’s not going to stop being an activist, though.
Kaua Rodolfo | Environmental Activism
He’s only 13 years old, not quite a teenager though he will soon be one of our teens changing the world, but this Brazilian kid has been spearheading a tree planting initiative in the city of Curtiba and they’ve planted over 1 million trees.
He’s also now the ambassador of Plant-for-the-Planet a charitable awareness campaign to encourage others to do similar things.
Maimouna Ndiaye, 15 Women’s Education Activist
Maimouna is from Mali where she works tirelessly to get other women to take up programming and to join her on the national robotics team!
One of her first projects was to translate Bambara, the local language, into both English and French.
For fun, she also studies artificial intelligence!
She says that women in her country need to understand the opportunity that programming can bring.
William Winslow | Hunger Activist
William wants to put an end to childhood hunger and he’s ready to do whatever it takes to make that a reality.
His life changed the day that he learned nearly 20% of kids in his home state of North Carolina were at risk for going hungry including his classmates.
Since then he’s raised over $60,000 and collected thousands of pounds of food to prevent others from going hungry.
We suspect he will be a long stayer on our teens changing the world list.
Haaziq Kazi | Ocean Environmental Activist
Haaziq watched a program on whales where a dead whale was washed ashore, and its stomach was found to be full of plastic.
At the age of 9, he designed a system to clean the world’s oceans and has already built a prototype!
He also runs the ERVIS Foundation to try and teach others to respect the seas before they are gone.
Genesis Butler | Animal Rights Activism
Genesis went vegetarian at 3 and vegan at 6. She’s been working tirelessly to persuade everyone she knows to join her.
She also runs a non-profit the Genesis For Animals that supports animal shelters.
She gives talks about animal welfare and has even managed to talk her local city council into passing animal-friendly ordinances!
No wonder she’s on our teens changing the world top 10.
Sidney Keys | Literacy Activist
Sidney has always loved to read but he was shocked to learn that many of his peers couldn’t read.
So, he started Books n Bros a reading club that is aimed at supporting boys to read which is focused on African American literature.
Milena Radoytseva | Bullying Activist
Milena set up Safenet’s youth panel which is dedicated to eliminating bullying online and to help them to better communicate with each other.
She’s from Bulgaria but regularly talks on this subject in both French and English!