Social Change
1. Sana Bell of the Black Youth Project 100 on harnessing your energy and drawing on personal experience to create change.
2. Sister Simone Campbell on making a career out of helping others.
3. Hillary Clinton answers our readers’ questions on staying calm, getting into politics at a young age, and learning from debate.
4. Former senator Wendy Davis gives her advice for activists and organizers, and talks about how she faces fear.
5. Parkland activists David and Lauren Hogg on their new book, the gun reform movement, and passing the mic.
6. Robyn Kanner, a co-founder of the online resource MyTransHealth, discusses the importance of community and access to care.
7. Feminist activist Shelby Knox on sex education, online politics, and what Gloria Steinem is like as a roommate.
8. Genevieve Liu, founder of the site Surviving Life After a Parent Dies, on helping herself and other teens through grief.
9. Writer and activist Janet Mock on her feminist icons and how teenagers are way cooler than the media thinks. Here she is again on the Rookie Podcast, talking about Surpassing Certainty, a memoir of her young adulthood, first jobs, and first love.
10. Activist and former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards on her path to activism, how she missed her college graduation to attend a protest, what “defunding” Planned Parenthood actually means, and what we can do to protect reproductive rights.
11. Activist Roula Seghaier on her role in the Arab Spring and using the internet to organize.
12. Mini Timmaraju, the former National Women’s Vote Director for Hillary for America, talks about finding the right political organization for you.
13. Activist and Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai on what she’s learned from girls all over the world, what inspires her, and what she’s doing next.
14. Immigration lawyer Afia Yunus on using her degree to help others.
15. Our Stand For Something series featured six inspiring teenage activists. We caught up with them a year later to learn about the progress they’d made.
Art
1. Illustrator Yumi Sakugawa answers our questions in drawing-form.
2. Photographer Bee Walker on making art out of mistakes and working at your own speed.
3. Wendy Yao, the owner of L.A. art bookstore Ooga Booga, on how she got started, supporting work you believe in, and bringing cool things to your town.
4. Singer, painter, and performer Zemmoa on self-expression and unclouding your goals.
5. Sara’o Bery and Leronn Brooks, the curators of the Racial Imaginary Institute, on destabilizing white supremacy through art.
(And, be sure to peruse our Bad Girl Painter series for some serious inspiration from young artists!)
Sports
1. Olympian snowboarder Jamie Anderson on starting out, being homeschooled, and getting over fear.
2. NFL analyst Andrea Hangst on why it’s OK to be critical of the things you love.
3. Actual icon Billie Jean King on sexist d-bags, LGBTQ rights, and what sports can teach us about getting through life.
4. Olympian fencer and fashion entrepreneur Ibtihaj Muhammad on keeping herself motivated.
5. Olympian boxer Claressa Shields on how boxing can be a girly sport.
Whew! Read them all yet? Ready for more? Here are some we couldn’t easily categorize but really wanted to include: This series of portraits of and interviews with queer, transgender, and gender-nonconforming young people. These portraits of and interviews with young women, about growing up in foster care and their journeys to adulthood. These interviews with protesters at the #FamiliesBelongTogether march in Washington, D.C., about their experiences migrating to the U.S. and fighting the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Jenny Zhang’s interview with the first boy she ever kissed, ten years later. And a three-part series of interviews with teenagers in late-night diners at 3 A.M. (Those are especially good before bed.) ♦