Global Citizen of the week: Marley Diaz

11-Year-Old Marley Dias is an all-star

reader who in 2016 organized a book
drive, called #1000BlackGirlBooks, that
delivered more than 8,000 books to young
girls.

Now, she’s got a new project in the works:

a book of her own. Scholastic has picked
up the rights to Dias’ new book about
literary activism, which focuses on “the
importance of literacy and diversity” and
“delivers hands-on strategies for
becoming a lifelong reader.”

www.globalcitizen.org
 Global Citizen of the week: Sophie Cruz
In 2015, Sophie Cruz, five years old at the time,
broke through security at a Papal motorcade to
give Pope Francis a letter asking that her parents
— who are undocumented immigrants — not be
deported from the US.

Now six, Cruz is still on the front lines of

advocating for immigrants’ rights. Speaking at the
Women’s March on Washington in January, Cruz
brought the house down. “We are here together
making a chain of love to protect our families,”
Cruz said.

“Let us fight with love, faith and courage so that

our families will not be destroyed,” she added,
before launching the
crowd into a cheer of
Si Se Puede! (Yes we
can!).

See the speech at…

https://youtu.be/qPa464CEbuE

www.globalcitizen.org
 Global Citizen of the week: Mo’ne Davis
In 2015, Mo’ne Davis showed the world that girls can
play ball with the boys, and win. Davis, 13 at the time,
became the first African-American girl to compete in
the Little League World Series, the first girl to pitch a
winning game in the LLWS, and the youngest athlete to
be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Aside from serving as a role model for young girls

everywhere, Davis also has demonstrated an interest in
serving others, as well. In 2015, she launched her own
sneaker line, the proceeds of which went toward Plan
International’s Because I Am a Girl initiative, a
movement to empower girls around the world.

“I never thought at the age of 13 I’d be a role model,

but having young girls look up to me is pretty cool,”
Davis said. “If I can inspire them to reach their goals,
that would be even
cooler.”

www.globalcitizen.org
 Global Citizen of the
week: Kid President
(AKA Robby Novak)
Everyone’s favourite
motivational speaker, Kid
President (whose real name is
Robby Novak), made headlines with his series of
unconventional pep talks that have now garnered tens
of millions of views on Youtube.
“If we’re all on the same team, let’s start acting like it,”
Novak tells us in that video. “We’ve got work to do.”
In 2013, Novak was invited to the White House, where
he was pictured sitting at President Barack Obama’s
desk in the Oval Office and giving Obama a hug.
A lesser-known fact about Novak is that he was born
with osteogenesis imperfecta, a rare disease that
makes his bones break easily. He has broken more than
70 bones in his young lifetime, but has not let the
disease slow him down in the slightest, continuing to
preach unity and togetherness (and also skateboarding
fearlessly).
Watch Kid President on… https://youtu.be/l-gQLqv9f4o

www.globalcitizen.org
 Global Citizen of the week: Payal Jangid
After escaping from child slavery in Delhi,
Payal Jangid, 14 at the time, became an
advocate for girls’ education, and won a
World Children’s Prize for her work with rural
communities in India. She’s now the leader of
her town’s Child Parliament, working to make
her village “child-friendly” by educating the
community about domestic violence and child
marriage.

www.globalcitizen.org
Global Citizen of the week: Avery McCrae
(11)
In 2015, a group of 21 plaintiffs age 9-20 from Eugene,
Oregon, took the United States government to court
for burning fossil fuels. They argue man-made climate
change challenges their future, and thereby their
constitutional right to due process under the law,
according to the Atlantic.

Avery McRae, the second youngest in the group, began

her environmental activism at age five, raising $200 to
save endangered snow leopards. Now, she’s taken that
activism to the next level, and imagines the court case
could still be going on by the time she reaches high
school.

www.globalcitizen.org
Global Citizen
of the week:
Xiuhtezcatl
Roske-
Martinez, 16
Xiuhtezcatl (pronounced ‘Shoe-Tez-Caht’) Roske-Martinez is
on the front lines of climate change activism. Roske-Martinez
is the youth director of Earth Guardians and has been a
speaker on climate change at the United Nations General
Assembly and the Rio+20 United Nations Summit.

He also served on President Obama’s 2013 Youth Council,

and was one of the 20 kids to take the US government to
court for climate change in 2015.

He gave his first speech at the age of six, and it was

incredible.

“When I was 5-years-old, I wanted to go to all the factories

and shut them down with my little brother,” he said in that
speech. “But once I turned six I realized that it was us that
were buying from the factories.”
Xiuhtezcatl’s speech as a 6 year old. https://youtu.be/8bu21NL3wNA

www.globalcitizen.org
Global Citizens of the
week: Melati and Isabel
Wijsen, 15 and 13
Melati and Isabel Wijsen
founded Bye Bye Plastic
Bags in 2013, after being
inspired by classroom lessons on Mahatma Ghandi and
other activists. Started on the island of Bali, Indonesia,
the initiative aims to remove plastic bags from
beaches, schools, and communities throughout the
country.

Melati and Isabel's organization has grown from an

idea to a youth-led organization with a 25-person staff
and a board of directors. Thanks to their trailblazing
work, the organization succeeded in lobbying the Bali
airport to initiate a plastic bag ban in August 2016. By
January 2018, the entire island of Bali was declared
plastic bag free, with the country of Indonesia planning
to ban plastic bags by 2021.

Watch their TED talk: https://youtu.be/P8GCjrDWWUM

www.globalcitizen.org