Thrill-Seeking for Nerds (who want to change the world)

Today’s post is building off what was introduced in Part 1 back in May. After discussing the issue of period poverty, I intended to interview local organizers at my school as well as teen leaders with PERIOD from around the country. According to their website, “PERIOD was founded in 2014 by two 16-year-old high school students with a passion for periods.” There are three pillars to the work of PERIOD chapters: service, education, and advocacy. @periodrhs bagging menstrual hygiene products to hand out free of charge Between May 27 and today, however, the movement for menstrual equality has been through some changes and reckonings. There’s now a more important story to tell. I spoke with Kacey, the president of PERIOD at McMinnville High School in Oregon, and Shyla, co-president of PERIOD at Redwood High School in California, back in May. Both of these chapters are now disassociating from PERIOD. What happened? Recently, some disturbing news has come to light about PERIOD and Nadya Okam...

Apologies, I haven't written a blog post in a month. June was overwhelming and completely worth it, but it's time to debrief from all that and bring my blog up to speed! One thing that made June special was the RESULTS International Conference two weeks ago. Ordinarily, there are several days of workshops, panels, and networking opportunities. The conference culminates in a day of lobbying on Capitol Hill. I've been tagging along with my mom to this thing since I was nine, and every year I grow a little more as an advocate. At this year's virtual conference, we received the usual statistics and trainings, of course. We also had the opportunity to hear from our leaders and our fellow advocates, from experts on policy and experts on poverty who have experienced it firsthand, what our work means in this moment.  The protests are important. So are lobby meetings.  The U.S. poverty branch of RESULTS has been working on housing and the racial wealth gap for years, and the glo...

The most meaningful thing I'm doing this summer is, hands-down, phonebanking with Sunrise! Some lovely phonebankers pose for a Zoom screenshot Charles Booker and Jamaal Bowman have their primaries on June 23rd, and there are thousands of calls to make before then, so I wanted to get this post out in time for people to join a phonebank if they want to. Since  I just mentioned it at the end of my  last post , I thought I’d elaborate. So what's a phonebank? Put simply, phonebanking is when volunteers make direct phone calls to voters, asking them to vote for a certain candidate. I had never done a phonebank before in my life until this year, when my local Sunrise hub made calls for Marie Newman (candidate for Congress in IL-03). It was a small group that patiently explained all the steps to me over Zoom, and Newman ended up winning her primary , so that felt awesome! But what if I say the voter's name wrong? That will happen at some point. Just do your best and be friendly! ...

"Do more than just sharing an Instagram post. Don't be a performance activist." A student I follow on Instagram shared this on her story, along with a screenshot of  https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/ . You can find places to donate, petitions, and other resources there to take action.  Another advocate's Instagram story, in a different state. Let's look at some of those actions! Since you're reading this, I assume you've already decided to stand against racist acts of violence and the widespread complacency and apathy that lets them keep happening. So this post will focus less on the why , because we already have that from our social media feeds, and more on how  we respond. Fundraising, online advocacy, and protests aren't my usual tactics, personally. I usually stick to  volunteering in election campaigns or lobbying members of Congress directly over months and years. But that's when I'm looking for a long-term, legislative response.  Tod...

Let’s talk about a health and justice issue (that isn’t a virus). Let’s talk about period poverty. This will be a three-part blog, with this first post explaining the issue. The second part is an interview with a local teen organizer who helped put on a tampon drive and presented it at the United Nations, and the third part is about nationwide advocacy. Let’s get into it! Credit @jbs.geo on Instagram I didn’t know about period poverty until middle school. One day, the Gender Equity Organization (GEO) club put up signs all over campus with statistics about period poverty. Since we rarely see infographics centered on a clip-art uterus, they grabbed attention. Period poverty is the inability to afford menstrual hygiene products. Over 1.2 billion women around the world lack access to basic sanitation and hygiene, so this is on a massive global scale. This is an issue of gender equality because most menstruators are women, and also trans rights because not all menstruators are women and no...