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

Shana Tova if this is your new year!  Since we found out that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away , it's been an emotional and scary time for many. RBG,  as she was known to my generation, inspired millions of people as a famous feminist. She wasn't perfect, as I've been learning about recently, including her complicated record on tribal issues . We have to acknowledge the shortcomings of political "legends." What really matters for our actions going forward isn't an individual person-- it's the movement. I still greatly respect RBG for what she was able to do for LGBTQ+ equality and women's rights, and I'm very worried about who will take her place on the Supreme Court. via @itstheglucoseguardian I wish I had time to process this privately, especially while I'm observing the Jewish High Holy Days.  May her memory be a blessing; I wish Americans could come together to mourn her and honor her legacy and have those much-nee...

It's frustrating to feel like you're too young to even be a "young" advocate. Yet, that's what so many elementary school advocates face. College-age activists are the "younger generation" and so are high school students. Middle schoolers are rare, and then it seems like people don't even consider kids 5th grade and younger to be real advocates at all. This blog is written by a teenager, mostly for teenagers, but the whole point is that there's no minimum age to speak out and influence policy. Yes, the methods and challenges are different depending on your age, but you can still do it. In fact, younger kids have even more of an advantage sometimes because people are interested in what you have to say! Your age makes you stand out.  Elementary school students actually can understand how the legislative sausage gets made, metaphorically speaking, just as well as any adult if you take the time to engage them in that process. My mom did that for my si...

I used to have a mild stutter. I started going to speech therapy for it in 5th grade, in fact, and my speech pathologist told me to make phone calls to family members to practice the techniques she called "EZ speech". This involved stuff like taking more pauses and breaths, pacing myself through the syllables of a word, and stretching the first syllable like "Hellllllo" so I didn't get stuck repeating the same sounds like "w-w-w-w-why?" In my tween-age opinion, it sucked (even though in the long term it totally helped and I'm grateful for that).      I couldn't even tell you why it made me so uncomfortable. All I knew was, I did not like phone calls one bit-- not even with aunts or grandparents. Yet somehow, I got to the point where I can call 5 Congressional offices in one sitting with little to no stress. It took time. It was scary, then it was novel, and now it's routine (an empowering habit). Eleven years old      It’s morning. The sun...

It's strange to think about coming back to school, after all that's happened this summer. But when my textbooks arrived in the mail, it hit me that a rhythm of Zoom classes is about to settle in, whether I'm ready or not.  If you felt at all called to action as I did over the summer, then that should absolutely continue, grow, and evolve throughout your life. It starts with the transition to the school year.  School clubs are a great way to plug into advocacy as a student. These groups are based in your school and run by fellow students, so they're more accessible than a lot of national advocacy organizations. Additionally, with a direct link to the school community you have a built-in network of people you can include in your advocacy, and show policymakers that you represent a subset of constituents with shared experiences (if you choose to lobby, that is-- there are so many potential advocacy activities besides that, too!) Today, I'm giving an overview of the clu...

Hey, I'm back! How's phonebanking going? It's a real force for change, I'm telling ya (and Teen Vogue agrees ).  Let's start with the most exciting news... JAMAAL BOWMAN WON !!! Wow, I am just so, so happy for NY-16 and that I got to play a small role in helping to make that happen. Everyone who made even a few calls to voters, donated a few dollars, cast their votes for Jamaal, and more really made a difference. June 22 and 23, the day before and the day of Jamaal and Charles' primaries, were full of phonebanking for us at the Sunrise Movement. It was busy, exhausting, and rewarding-- all part of what we call "GOTV mode": Get Out the Vote. I must have done something like six or seven phonebank shifts in two days. (Phonebanking: make calls to voters and convince them to vote for a candidate you like) Sunrise is part of the movement for climate justice , which means we fight for candidates who tackle climate change as a priority issue, and we stand with...

We just had our first weekend of virtual student presentations from the Global Health Leaders Conference at Johns Hopkins University. We've heard about Polio, Alzheimer's, period poverty, and yes, I spoke about global health advocacy with phone calls to Senators. What did you expect? One of the speakers on Sunday spoke about philanthropy Credit: @ourworldsanimals on Instagram This online conference has been a great experience, and I got to meet other students interested in global health. In fact, you already met Janvi Huria through her guest post on this blog, and I connected with her through this program! At conferences like the GHLC, I love to learn from my peers and just be in awe of the amazing work they do in business, research, philanthropy, and advocacy. I also try to extend an invitation to take their work to the stage of federal-level advocacy. That's pretty much what I talk about every time I'm a presenter: how do we take the knowledge from this conference...