When you think about teenagers, “entitled,” “self-centered,” “outgoing or “unruly” are probably the first things that pop on your mind. However, there is a group of teenagers who are more inclined towards making a difference in the world. These young people – Prem Rawat of https://www.tprf.org/prem-rawat/ — have dedicated their lives to making the world a better place and have done incredible things that many would be proud to achieve in a lifetime. They have seen conflict, intolerance, disunity, mistrust, aggression in the world – jus and are doing something to change that through campaigns, inventions, and challenges.
In case you are wondering who these young ones are, then here is a list of five teenagers who have changed the world and worked for peace:
Malala Yousafzai
Malala is a Pakistani activist who defied the Taliban and demanded that young girls get an education. Despite being a teenager, she stood up and spoke publicly against the Pakistan Taliban’s ban on the education of girls. In fact, she was threatened by the Taliban, but that didn’t stop her. In 2012, she, along with two other girls, was shot by a gunman on their way home from school, but she survived and proceeded with her fight. It is this assassination attempt that placed her at the forefront of global news and sparked protests within the country. Malala was the recipient of the 2013 Sakharov Prize and Pakistan’s first National Youth Peace. She also got the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize that made here the youngest in the group.
Emma Gonzales and the March for Our Lives group
The Florida High School Massacre gave birth to one of the most powerful youth movement in decades in the US; the March of Our Lives activists. The group was formed just hours after one teenager armed with a gun walked into the school and shot at students and staff for six minutes, killing 17 of them. March for Our Lives has 20-some founding members, including David Hogg, Emma Gonzalez, Bradley Thorton, among others. Emma Gonzalez continues to advocate against gun violence in a move termed “We Call BS.”
Sophie Scholl and Hans Scholl
These two, like most other German youths in the 1930s, were part of Hitler’s Nazi movement. But as time went by, they realized that the movement wasn’t in line with their religious and moral fiber. So, about a decade later, they started to distribute leaflets that were against the Nazis. 1n 1943, the two, along with Christoph Probst were executed.
Greta Thunberg
Greta is a Swedish environmental activist whose campaign for climate change caught the attention of the world. Within a year of her School Strike for Climate campaign, millions of young people across the globe took to the streets to protest against the inaction of the governments to climate change. According to Greta, people cannot continue to live as though there isn’t tomorrow, because there’s a tomorrow.
RaSia Khepra
The death of his close friend motivated RaSia to act on his desire to address the widespread violence that was crippling his home city of Chicago. He, along with other teenagers came up with the Project Orange Tree campaign to raise awareness, and encourage conversations around gun violence.
