These Kids Helped Change the World in the Last Decade
Greta Thunberg
A five-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg was also the youngest ever TIME Person of the Year in 2019. She started out by missing class to protest alone in front of the Swedish parliament as a “school strike” for climate action—which ended up inspiring millions to demonstrate around the world. Just over a year later, she addressed global leaders at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York City, which she arrived at by traversing the Atlantic in a zero-emissions sailboat.
Thunberg’s biggest accomplishment has been motivating regular people like herself, as well as governments, to rally and take action to save the planet. Now 22, Thunberg has been focusing on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and support for Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas War.
Jahkil Jackson
After distributing food to the homeless with his aunt, young Jahkil Jackson, from the South Side of Chicago, established Project I Am to give out “Blessing Bags,” which contain essentials like soap, toothbrushes and socks, to the homeless—all at the tender age of 8 years old. Now 17, Jackson’s group has helped thousands of people in need around the world.
Also a motivational speaker and youth ambassador for several organizations, Jackson strives to get young people involved in their communities on a local and global level. Among his many honors, he was acknowledged for his work by President Barack Obama and named a hero by Marvel’s Hero Project. Sharing his example of what’s possible can be a way to build your children’s self-esteem. He is also a two-time bestselling author.
Malala Yousafzai
As a girl, Malala Yousafzai was no longer allowed to attend school after the Taliban took control of her village in Pakistan. So, she wrote about her experiences and spoke out for girls’ right to learn—and was shot in the head for her actions in 2012, when she was 15 years old. After surviving her horrific injury, she established the Malala Fund and became an activist for girls’ rights around the world.
She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 at age 17, the youngest person ever to achieve it. And in 2023, she became the youngest ever Honorary Fellow student at Oxford University. Yousafzai, now 28, continues in her work to promote girls’ right to education and put an end to gender discrimination, and she is considered one of the women pioneers who changed the world.
Ryan Hickman
When he was just 3 years old, Ryan Hickman was inspired to collect recycling in his neighborhood after visiting a recycling plant in California. With the help of his parents, he founded Ryan’s Recycling Company in 2012 and became a viral sensation for his efforts to keep plastic out of the ocean. According to his company’s website, he has recycled 2,449,428 cans and bottles and has participated in more than 400 cleanup efforts. He’s also saving the proceeds from his efforts to pay for college. Hickman visited Washington to promote a standardized labeling system to help eliminate recycling contamination in trash bins.
Robby Novak
Bringing a little more joy to the world can make a kid incredible, which is exactly what Robby Novak, aka Kid President, did with his series of YouTube videos, made with the help of his older brother-in-law. Kid President began in 2012 when Novak was just 8 years old, with the goal of making the world less “boring” and more awesome by spreading messages of love and positivity.
His outlook on life inspired many, especially given that Novak has the brittle bone disease osteogenesis imperfecta, and his popularity grew. After taking a break to focus on school and just being a kid, Novak, now 21, is living in a small town in Tennessee and going to school for physical therapy.
Marley Dias
For many people of color, particularly girls, it’s frustrating not to see themselves represented in the books they read. That’s exactly how 11-year-old Marley Dias felt about the books she was assigned in school. But she didn’t just want to find black female protagonists for her own reading—she wanted all black girls to have access to those stories as well. So in November 2015, she launched the campaign #1000BlackGirlBooks to collect and donate 1,000 books featuring black girls—and so far, she’s collected more than 11,000. In 2018, at age 13, Dias published her own inspirational children’s book, Marley Dias Gets It Done—And So Can You.
Melati and Isabel Wijsen
These Indonesian sisters are on a mission to stop plastic bags from ending up in the ocean off their island of Bali. Indonesia is one of the world’s biggest polluters of marine plastic, so in 2013, the then 10- and 12-year-old sisters decided to do something about it after being inspired by a lesson in school on influential leaders like Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi. They started a petition to get the government to take action on the plastic issue, organized beach cleanups—and even decided to go on a hunger strike, as Gandhi did. That last action, publicized on social media, scored them a meeting with the governor.
After years of working with local and international leaders, including speaking at the United Nations, the sisters made major progress when the Balinese government announced a law banning single-use plastic in 2019. The Wijsen sisters’ organization, Bye Bye Plastic Bags, also helps kids around the world start anti-plastic initiatives in their own communities.
Emma Gonzalez
Emma Gonzalez was a high school senior when she survived the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which killed 17 people. They, along with other Parkland survivors, turned their horrific experience into action by speaking out against gun violence. After the shooting, they gave a speech that went viral and has since become part of the advocacy group Never Again MSD and March for Our Lives. They also encourage other young people to register to vote. By starting one of the biggest youth activist movements in recent history, Gonzalez has shown the impact and power young people can have on the country.
Jaylen Arnold
With Tourette’s syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder and Asperger’s syndrome, Jaylen Arnold always knew he was different. But when he was bullied at school, the then 8-year-old decided to take action on behalf of other bullied kids. He started a website for his classmates with the message “Bullying No Way,” and the project immediately grew by leaps and bounds.
The Jaylens Challenge Foundation now runs programs that teach kids how to recognize bullying and how to appreciate kids who are different. Arnold’s foundation is internationally recognized, and in 2017, at age 16, he was presented with The Diana Award for philanthropy by Prince William and Prince Harry, the only American to have received the honor.
Bana Alabed
The most heartbreaking effects of war are on the children who grow up amid danger and conflict. At just 7 years old, on a Twitter account managed by her mother, Bana Alabed documented living through the siege of Aleppo, Syria, in 2016, telling the world about her wishes for a childhood of peace without fear. Her accounts from the front lines gave people a firsthand look at what war does to children and families. Her family eventually became refugees as they were evacuated to Turkey.
Alabed continued to be an advocate for peace, and in 2018 Simon & Schuster published her book about her experiences, Dear World: A Syrian Girl’s Story of War and Plea for Peace.
Amariyanna “Mari” Copeny
After a change in the water supply of Flint, Michigan, led to residents becoming sick and dying, something had to be done. Amazingly, then 8-year-old Mari Copeny drew the federal government’s attention to the water crisis with a letter to President Obama in 2016. When the president visited Flint after reading her letter, the spunky kid donned her beauty pageant sash for the meeting, earning her the nickname “Little Miss Flint.”
The visit resulted in federal aid to help the crisis—but Copeny’s advocacy didn’t end there. She went on to fundraise more than $500,000 for Flint and helped her community first by handing out bottled water and then more environmentally friendly water filters. She’s also become involved with aiding underserved children and organizing community events. Now 18, her goal is to run for president herself.
Zuriel Oduwole
This young education advocate and filmmaker made her mark at the age of 9 with her first short documentary, about the Ghana Revolution, as part of a filmmaking competition. And in 2013, at 10 years old, she became the youngest person ever to be featured in Forbes magazine. She gained more attention for the self-produced film she made in 2014, at the age of 12, called A Promising Africa, which profiled several African nations. Oduwole, who is American but whose parents are from Africa, began focusing her efforts on African girls’ education, interviewing heads of state and speaking at the U.N. Oduwole also established Dream Up, Speak Up, Stand Up to spread the message to kids about the importance of education.
Amika George
When U.K. teen Amika George read an article from the BBC about “period poverty,” which occurs when girls have to miss school because they can’t afford sanitary products, she decided to take action. George started the petition FreePeriods.org in 2017, which gained thousands of signatures in a short amount of time. Two years later, the British government announced that starting January 20, 2020, children and young women would be able to access free sanitary products in schools and colleges in England. But George hasn’t stopped campaigning to normalize periods and keep girls in school with accessible sanitary products: Now 25, she’s tackling period poverty globally as well.
Mikaila Ulmer
After being stung twice by bees, then 4-year-old Mikaila Ulmer started learning about the little critters—only to discover honey bees are in danger. Coincidentally, her family had recently received a cookbook of her great-grandmother’s recipes that included one for flaxseed lemonade. Young Mikaila thought that if she could make lemonade sweetened with honey from local beekeepers, she could help the bees. When her parents suggested she enter her lemonade in a local children’s business competition in her hometown of Austin, Texas, her product was a hit. She began her company, Me & The Bees Lemonade, donating a portion of the profits to organizations that save the bees.
Now 20, Ulmer has found major success: Her lemonade is available at Whole Foods and 1,500 other stores, plus she’s expanded her honey-infused product line and started her own bee-advocacy nonprofit, Healthy Hive Foundation.
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