Girl Warriors: How 25 Young Activists Are Saving the Earth

Girl Warriors: How 25 Young Activists Are Saving the Earth — page 5 — INTRODuCTION Greta’s time have been speaking out rising up and demanding their leaders leaders take action Their stories inspired me and in an increasingly scary world gave me hope So in 2019 I wrote an article for the Washington Post about teen climate activists in the United States hustling to save the planet Until this point my reporting had not focused on the climate but that article sparked the idea for this book My goal was to spend six months interviewing 25 climate activists under age 25 from around the globe I thought the hard part of writing this book would be finding activists but every time I interviewed someone I heard Oh you should speak to so-and-so They led me to one another They also introduced me to their moms dads siblings and close friends I spoke to girls and young women from the United States Pakistan Iran Colombia the Dominican Republic Brazil Jamaica the Marshall Islands Indonesia Kenya Uganda England Ireland the Netherlands India and Australia These activists are fighting for the world they have inherited Their age does not deter them During my interviews they reminded me there can be no climate justice without racial justice I’m a White middle-class woman and part of writing this book has been unlearning my own internalized privilege My older daughter is Black but still the lens through which I write is a White privileged one One of the rules that my first editors all White men taught me in the newsroom was never share your story with a source before publication Yes you can verify quotes by reading them out loud but if you share your story with a source you’ll no longer be in control of it But how are these rules upholding a system that has kept White people in a position of power throughout history With the support of Kara Rota my editor at Chicago Review Press I sent the stories to every activist before publication I’m grateful for their corrections corrections and for the times they pointed out places where I needed to say more As I finished writing this book I cast my vote for the 2020 US presidential presidential election Then along with the rest of the world I waited as our heroic x

Girl Warriors: How 25 Young Activists Are Saving the Earth — page 7

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