Teen Vogue's 21 Under 21 2019: The Young People Changing the World

Meet this year's class of outstanding girls, femmes, and nonbinary people.

October 29, 2019

On September 20, 2019, millions of young people took to the streets demanding global action on climate change. Motivated by the words and testimony of 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, pundits, politicians, and parents watched in wonder as young people took their futures into their own hands.

Some were shocked. We were not. Greta and the young people who marched that day represent a generation that is at the forefront of change. We’ve documented this generation, your generation, the generation that is unapologetically demanding, creating, and pushing for the world they deserve to live in.

As we approach the end of a decade defined by youth in action, we are proud to present to you this year’s 21 under 21: a diverse, creative, passionate, inspired class of global citizens taking matters into their own hands. On the list are Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi, who took a gap year to write a book and tour the country talking about racial understanding after seeing a profound lack of education around it; there’s Sahithi Pingali, who saw a water crisis in her hometown of Bangalore, India, and created an app for people to test water and collect data on pollution; there’s Elle Mills, a YouTuber who uses the platform to talk about mental health for millions of young people; there’s Xiye Bastida, an indigenous Mexican climate activist who helped organize the Global Climate March and has been at the forefront of climate change activism.

These are just a few in a list of truly tremendous young women, femmes, and nonbinary people.

Louisa Cannell
1/19
Adriana Díaz, 18, Table Tennis Whiz
By Bianca Nieves
If you Google “famous Puerto Rican athletes,” a whole list of (male) baseball and basketball players and a handful of boxers appears. However, Adriana Díaz is changing the game — table tennis, to be exact — and should be right up there with all of them.
At only 18 years old, Díaz has not only brought to Puerto Rico multiple championships, but she also ranks 27th in the world, according to the International Table Tennis Federation. She’s also the first Puerto Rican female table tennis player to qualify for the Olympic Games (that happened in 2016) and is set to compete at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
Though table tennis is second nature to her, given that she grew up watching her parents training other children and her older sisters, that doesn’t mean she hasn’t faced multiple challenges in her athletic career.
“My biggest challenge has been placing myself among the top 30 women [table tennis players] in the world. Because coming from a country where table tennis isn’t a traditional sport, it becomes a greater challenge to achieve a good ranking and maintain it,” she tells Teen Vogue.
And for Díaz, that drive is key when it comes to giving advice for other young girls and femmes who want to make a difference: “If you want to achieve a goal, you have to work for it. It’s not going to happen by itself. You can’t leave it to luck. You have to work, fight, and trust yourself, no matter what.”
Louisa Cannell
2/19
Allie Soper, 18, Drug Awareness Advocate
By Brittney McNamara
Allie Soper was just 14 years old when her brother Clay died after mixing the prescription drug Xanax with alcohol — a potentially lethal combination that not everyone knows is dangerous. To prevent others from a similar tragedy, Allie and her family started the Clay Soper Memorial Fund and put out If They Had Known, a documentary about the threat of mixing prescription drugs and alcohol. But the film isn’t just another PSA that your teachers show you during an assembly; it’s a real account told through Clay’s friends’ eyes, a personal touch Allie says she hopes will get her peers to really listen.
“From the beginning, I wanted to be involved in sharing this message because I knew for If They Had Known to truly have an impact, it had to be told from a teenage perspective. As a teenager myself, I was tired of viewing presentations given in a manner that was unrelatable to most students,” Allie says.
In addition to the film, Allie uses her own voice to spread awareness. While she was called to this kind of activism as a result of her brother’s death, she says it doesn’t necessarily come easily.
“It’s one thing to preach the concepts of safety and communication, but entirely different to do so in real life,” she says. “Each time I feel the need to share my story, it takes all the courage I can muster.”

Louisa Cannell
3/19
Arielle Geismar, 18, Gun Control Crusader
By Allegra Kirkland
Arielle Geismar never wanted to be an activist. The 18-year-old New Yorker says she got involved in gun violence and women’s rights activism because the adults around her weren’t doing enough.
“We’re forced into situations where it somehow becomes our responsibility to be the ‘adults’ and the mature ones,” she says. “I do this work because young people have a voice in our society, and damn right I’m going to fight for what I believe in.”
Arielle currently serves as the New York State president of Team Enough, a gun control group. This year she worked with state lawmakers and Governor Andrew Cuomo to pass an “extreme risk protection order” preventing individuals that a court deems a risk to themselves or others from purchasing or possessing guns. She’s also the associate director at Gen Z Girl Gang and the national action chair of the Next Gen Activist Women’s Caucus.
That packed schedule can take a toll. As Arielle tells Teen Vogue, it can be difficult to find the time for self-care, but it’s essential to prevent activist burnout: “I’ve been realizing that our work isn’t sustainable if we aren’t taking care of ourselves.”
Doing that work, though, is what drives and sustains her. Arielle wants to show other young women that they can effect change right now if they “go out and do it. Be bold. Be brave.”
“There has to be something better than whatever this is [that] we have now,” she says.
Louisa Cannell
4/19
Elle Mills, 21, Mental Health Mentor
By Brittney McNamara
If you’re new to Elle Mills’s YouTube channel, you might know her for her mental health advocacy or her openness about being bisexual. For her channel, Elle has filmed her coming out (the video that arguably put her on the map), her first kiss, and even her own mental breakdown. That last bit was a sort of turning point for Elle: Experiencing her first panic attack and the mental health troubles that followed spurred her to be open with her fanbase about the often-ignored pressures of being a YouTuber and the steps she was taking toward self-care.
“I was experiencing a sudden growth in my career at a very fast pace. It was all so overwhelming, and the things I experienced are things I would never wish upon anybody else, which is why I became interested in mental health advocacy,” Elle tells Teen Vogue. “I don’t really have any answers, but I do have my story to tell, and I know that just knowing that you aren’t alone and that there are others experiencing what you may be feeling does go a long way.”
After she posted her video “Burnt Out at 19,” about the mental health impact of her YouTube channel, Elle took a break from the spotlight, not in order to hide but as a way to take care of herself.
Looking into the future, Elle says she hopes the world won’t have to strive for openness and inclusivity — because those things will exist naturally. And by sharing her own story, she’s already making the change she hopes for.
“As someone who is of mixed race and Asian heritage, female, and part of the LGBTQ+ community,” Elle says, “I hope that I can be a representative for people just like me in the media and that there are more people like me standing right beside me.”

Louisa Cannell
5/19
Em Odesser, 19, Barrier Breaker
By Tahirah Hairston
“Why keep it a secret when everyone you know is dealing with it?” That’s Em Odesser’s approach to speaking out about issues that are important to her and her peers. Because those issues — sex postivity for women and mental health — are still somewhat taboo in mainstream society, one could imagine the trouble she got into when she wanted to talk about them publicly in high school. Instead of getting discouraged, the 19-year-old put her energy elsewhere.
At 14, Em partnered with a friend to start her own digital publication, Teen Eye Magazine, where everything is “created entirely by teens, for teens.” Topics ranged from gender-based oppression and relationship dynamics to teen rage and depression. “Everyone tells you to write and talk about what you know, and I never seem to shut up…. When I had no other platform, I decided, okay, I’ll build my own,” she says.
Now the New York native not only serves as editor in chief of Teen Eye but manages social media for Sad Girls Club, a mental health platform for women of color, and writes for Salty World, a sex-positive newsletter. And she does all this while studying as a freshman at University of Iowa.
As for what’s next for Em? “I don’t know if I want to be a journalist, a dildo slinger, a novelist, a magazine editor, a comedian, a stylist, or what. But I hope I’m still expressing myself in a way that feels authentic,” she says. “I’d like to continue talking about femininity. I’d like to meet Lana del Rey or Phoebe Waller Bridges and ask them 7,000 questions. And I hope I never have to answer that tokenizing question ‘As a teen girl, how do you feel about…?’ again.”
Louisa Cannell
6/19
Hailey Hardcastle, 18, Suicide Prevention Stalwart
By Allegra Kirkland
It’s hard to talk about our mental health. It can feel embarrassing, alienating, or overwhelming to open up to friends or family about any darkness we may be experiencing. But if left unaddressed, these feelings can take a toll on our well-being and lead to self-harm — or worse.
That’s what Hailey Hardcastle wants to prevent. The 18-year-old mental health advocate spearheaded legislation to make Oregon one of the first states to mandate excused mental health days for students.
“Towns in the Portland metro area were experiencing an influx of suicides, and it was absolutely devastating to our schools and communities,” Hailey tells Teen Vogue. “After more research, I learned that all of Oregon was facing this mental health crisis; suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth ages 10 to 34 in our state. As someone who has faced [her] own mental health challenges and as a student leader, I knew I had to do something.”
The bill that Hailey helped write and champion was signed into law by Governor Kate Brown in June. Students may now cite mental health as a reason for any of the five excused absences they’re allowed to take in a three-month period. The adults in their lives will also be clued into the fact that they’re struggling with mental health issues and can help them find additional help if needed, Hailey says.
Now a freshman at the University of Oregon, Hailey hopes to see her movement for school mental health days go national and to inspire other young activists to take action on their issues of choice. Her three rules to live by: “[Don’t] interact with the critics”; “reach out to the powerful women in your life” for support; and feel empowered to “take action no matter how old you are.”

Louisa Cannell
7/19
Isra Hirsi, 16, Future President
By Lucy Diavolo
For Isra Hirsi, green activism is grassroots work. The 16-year-old co-executive director of the U.S. Youth Climate Strike got her start by joining a high school green club her freshman year. Since then, she’s become a national youth leader in the climate justice movement with the wisdom of an activist twice her age.
“Organizing may seem scary at first — it definitely can be — but everyone and anyone can be an organizer,” she tells Teen Vogue. “Taking your first leap is necessary to create change. You are allowed to take up those spaces, and don't you ever let anyone tell you differently.”
Even if organizing is for everyone, it’s not without its challenges. For Isra, the biggest obstacle she’s faced is running out of time — and that’s not due just to the clock the planet itself is racing against.
“Being a full-time high school student with organizing becomes extremely difficult as it creates more responsibilities,” she says, explaining the challenge of time management.
Despite the struggle of keeping up with everything in her life, Isra doesn’t seem interested in slowing down anytime soon. There’s a planet to win, after all, and that victory is what she sees in her ideal vision of the future, which includes a national Green New Deal and a world with clean air and water where her sister “has a future.”
For Isra, standing up for justice is a family matter. Like her mom, Minnesota representative and congressional firebrand Ilhan Omar, Isra also has political aspirations.
“I see myself in 2040 [as] the president-elect. I have been dreaming to become president since I was five, and the year I dedicated to my run is 2040,” she tells Teen Vogue.
No word on when “Hirsi 2040” merch will be available.
Louisa Cannell
8/19
Lachlan Watson, 19, Norm-Busting Performer
By Gabe Bergado
On Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Lachlan Watson plays the plucky, resourceful Theo, one of the titular witch’s best friends, who closes the gates to hell just in the nick of time. Off-camera, Lachlan might not be facing the ghouls of the underworld, but they’re doing work that’s just as important: changing Hollywood’s archaic norms when it comes to gender.
Lachlan explains to Teen Vogue that they were born to act in many ways, having been taught by their mom ever since childhood. Acting felt like destiny, even though it took a moment for the young performer to finally catch their break.
“I think my biggest challenge has been growing up and finding myself in an industry that is historically built on labeling and marginalizing people,” Lachlan says.
Lachlan, who identifies as nonbinary, is not only bringing visibility to performers like them through their role on Sabrina; they have also partnered with Do Something to help all young people, regardless of their gender, feel included at their prom. Additionally, they served as the new face of Schmidt’s Naturals on a campaign that partnered with the Trans Justice Funding Project. They hope that their impact on the world continues.
“I’m excited to look back in 21 years and know that we were here to stay! I’m ready to still be in the rooms and on the billboards and in the headlines for reasons so far beyond just being ‘that nonbinary actor.’ I’m ready to keep changing the world.”

Louisa Cannell
9/19
Pilar Hill, 13, Violin Impresario
By Danielle Kwateng-Clark
Pilar Hill was just six years old when she first picked up a violin. The way she became interested in the instrument that would forever change her life was like an omen, she says.
"I was actually like two or three and I saw this PBS show with an orchestra, and I was just drawn to something about it," Pilar tells Teen Vogue about one of her first encounters with classical music. "It wasn't like a particular instrument at that point. It's more just how the musicians were playing altogether. It was just so magical."
The Brooklynite’s penchant for the violin came a few years later, after seeing a poster of a violinist in concert at New York City’s Lincoln Center. "It just sparked something inside me," she says.
Almost eight years after first picking up the violin, the 13-year-old is an accomplished violinist who travels the world, studies at Juilliard's pre-college program, and spends anywhere from six to eight hours a day practicing. She's passionate about honing her craft and being a positive example — particularly to black girls who don't often see themselves represented in the classical genre.
Currently, Pilar is gearing up for "several performances," including one at a renowned London children’s hospital. And when she's not playing complex concertos by Bach, she enjoys writing. "I actually submitted my book idea to a famous children's-book publisher, and now we're in talks about publishing my work," she says. "I'm really excited about that."
Louisa Cannell
10/19
Priah Ferguson, 13, Actor Extraordinaire
By Sammie Scott
Two years ago, Priah Ferguson made her onscreen debut as everyone’s favorite little sister, Erica Sinclair. The 13-year-old emerged as the breakout star of Stranger Things season 2, stealing every one of her (too few) scenes as Lucas’s confident and precocious younger sibling. Priah knew everyone would love Erica and told Teen Vogue as much in 2017, but she also set her sights on a more expanded role on the hit Netflix show: "I hope Erica could partner with Lucas and fight off the Demogorgon with Eleven, Mad Max, and the whole cast.”
This past summer, that hope came to pass: Priah returned for season 3 as a series regular. As Erica, she joined Dustin, Robin, Steve, and the rest of the gang to uncover the shady goings-on in Hawkins and fight the Demogorgon — for the small price of free ice cream for life. As an added bonus, one of her character’s quick-witted comebacks inspired a viral meme.
Priah names black-girl classics Crooklyn and Daddy’s Little Girls as the two movies that “inspired [her] the most” in her journey to becoming an actor. Initially, she thought the films were based on real life: “It was the first time I saw girls who looked like me playing such strong roles,” Priah tells Teen Vogue.
Looking 21 years into the future, Priah is invested in helping to cultivate the next class of young creatives: “There are so many wonderful careers in arts that many don't know about,” she says. “I hope to change that!”

Louisa Cannell
11/19
Priya Vulchi, 20, and Winona Guo, 20 , Bias Busters
By Lindsay Peoples Wagner
Winona and Priya were only sophomores in high school when they realized that their entire education hadn’t included any meaningful discussion about racism in school— even though studies have proven that kids start developing signs of prejudice and stereotyping by as young as three years old.
“We’re the children of Chinese and Indian American immigrants, and race has impacted every part of our lives—our racially divided neighborhoods, friend groups, lunch tables, classrooms—since we were very young, since we were given skin bleaching products or were referred to as ‘that China girl,’ but we were never equipped with the language to understand it or act on it,” the pair tell Teen Vogue.
So Winona deferred going to Harvard and Priya deferred going to Princeton in order to take a year out of their lives to do a cross-country tour, traveling to all 50 states to collect first-person accounts of how racism has affected the lives of young people every single day.
Their book, Tell Me Who You Are, debuted in June and has spurred inspiring conversations at schools across the nation. Their hope is that K-12 educators will one day have the tools to talk about race in their classrooms and that all schools will have a required racial-literacy curriculum. “This is not the world we want to live in,” they say in a now-viral Ted Talk. “Racial literacy is an important part of the solution.”
Louisa Cannell
12/19
Riya Karumanchi, 16, Accessible Tech Vanguard
By Michelle Li
At 14, Riya Karumanchi invented the SmartCane, a new and improved version of the white cane used by blind people that utilizes technology for things like GPS navigation, object detection, and more. What was first developed for a school science fair quickly took off thanks to its thoughtful and innovative design. After visiting her grandparents in South India, Karumanchi realized that there were so many problems around the world. Although she was experiencing change around her in technology, it wasn’t being distributed equally to everyone.
Through Code.org and Code Academy, she developed her circuitry and coding skills, which were specific to the internet and the iPhone. But after joining ZeroToStartUp and the Knowledge Society in her community, and with the help of her mentors, she was exposed to emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and genomics. As a young CEO and a cofounder of her own company, she got a lot of nos and uninterested looks when sharing her ideas, but she persisted and finally found the right people to add to her team.
“Age should never be a limiting factor when it comes to driving change in the world. It is so important to start early and focus on continuous learning. What is important is passion and willingness to learn from failures,” Riya tells Teen Vogue. In 21 years, Riya hopes technology will help improve the lives of everyone around the globe — equally.
“I hope that in the next 21 years, we start using different technologies and sciences like AI, genomics, and cellular agriculture,” she says, “to tackle things like eradicating diseases and climate change.”

Louisa Cannell
13/19
Rosdely Ciprian, 15, and Thursday Williams, 18, Changemaking Performers
By Claire Dodson
New York high school debaters Thursday Williams and Rosdely Ciprian are a crucial element of the groundbreaking What the Constitution Means to Me, a Broadway play written and performed by Heidi Schreck that analyzes the legacy of the historical U.S. document in the context of Schreck’s own experiences. Thursday and Rosdely come in at the end of the play, just in time to debate with Schreck about whether the Constitution should be abolished — with the winner decided by a random audience member. The teens debate the Constitution's effectiveness (with the side they argue depending on a nightly coin toss), and in doing so, allow space for the audience to unpack their own issues, both with what is revolutionary about the document and what it fundamentally lacks.
Thursday and Rosdely’s work on the play, as well as their experiences as debaters, has shaped the way they look at the world and how they want to influence it. “As a future lawyer and congresswoman, I will create the foundation for change,” Thursday says. “I aspire to represent the underrepresented, as well as to create policies that will reshape the justice system. I hope to see a more just and inclusive society where black men and women are not a majority of the prison population and black juvenile delinquents are not seen as targets to society.”
Imagining the world in the next two decades, Rosdely is both skeptical and determined: “Well, that is, if we even make it to 21 years, with the serious climate crisis that’s going on,” she says. “I believe that if we can have three cameras on our phones, we should be able to find and create something that can fix our planet. Before you have a phone, you have to be alive to use it, right?”
Louisa Cannell
14/19
Sahithi Pingali, 18, Clean Water Crusader
By Emma Sarran Webster
For Sahithi Pingali, everything changed with a school project in her hometown of Bangalore, India, when she was 15. While interviewing people who lived near a lake so polluted that its surface is covered in toxic foam, she realized the full impact of the problem. “The pollution was killing the area’s biodiversity, tanking local businesses, and contaminating groundwater supply,” Sahithi, now an 18-year-old Stanford University student, tells Teen Vogue. “It also had effects far beyond the local community — tomatoes grown in polluted water were being sold all over the city, and the encroachment of ‘climate buffer’ wetlands was affecting local weather. I was shocked that I’d been able to ignore such a huge problem in my own backyard for so long.”
She decided she couldn’t ignore it any longer. Sahithi began working to raise awareness about Bangalore’s many polluted lakes — only to find there was little concrete data to support her activism. So she changed course and ultimately created a kit and app, WaterInsights, that allows citizens to collect water samples and crowdsource the data necessary to address pollution in freshwater bodies in India and around the globe. The app is currently in beta testing (you can sign up to participate at SciStarter.org), but Sahithi has already earned a top award at an international science fair, was profiled in the documentary Inventing Tomorrow, and had a minor planet in the Milky Way named after her.
That’s not to say it’s been easy: Sahithi challenges herself daily to keep working on a project that sometimes feels “beyond [her] ability” — but she’s motivated by the fact that “everyone has a right to clean water in their homes and in their environments,” she says. “If my solution can get the world one step closer to that goal, it’s worth doing.”

Louisa Cannell
15/19
Santi Ceballos,13, Sex-Ed Savior
By Christine Davitt
Santi Ceballos knew something had to change in their state. Santi, 13, who identifies as nonbinary and trans, was acutely aware of the gender-segregated, heteronormative, and binary-focused nature of the sex education classes in their school: “I remember my teacher telling me that they were not allowed to talk about homosexuality in sex-ed. And never reading anything about queer education or history or any books.”
Given their experience with sexuality-based bullying and the lack of queer education in school, Santi signed on to a lawsuit to make the change they wanted to see.
“Once my mom told me about the lawsuit to overturn the ‘No Promo Homo law,’ I knew I wanted to be a plaintiff in the case against it,” Santi says. The Arizona law, originally passed in 1991, was intended to prevent sexual educators from addressing anything that “promotes a homosexual lifestyle.” The law also forced Santi into an individual sex-ed lesson, since their classmates were otherwise divided into lessons strictly for boys and girls. Driven by a desire to make things “better for the queer youth in this state,” Santi signed on to be a plaintiff in the case that would eventually overturn these discriminatory curriculums.
Now Santi hopes things will be different for other LGBTQ+ youth. Santi dreams of a world “where everyone can be accepted for who they are and not separated by gender, race, or sexuality.” And though they never expected to be fighting decades-old discriminatory laws, they are happy they did. As Santi tells Teen Vogue, “My advice for other young people who want to make a change is don’t be scared to speak your truth or to be passionate about what you care about. Do not stay silent. Speak up!”
Louisa Cannell
16/19
Soleil Wheeler (Ewok), 13, Gaming Guru
By Gabe Bergado
Soleil Wheeler likes to play games. Not just any game, but the megapopular Fortnite. And she’s not just any casual gamer — at age 13 she has already proven herself as one to watch in the world of e-sports after joining FaZe Clan, one of the world’s most elite professional gaming organizations.
Known as Ewok in the world of professional gaming, she grew up playing multiplayer favorites such as Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart. Her younger brother turned her on to Fortnite, the first game she played that visually represented every sound and helped put her on the same playing field as other gamers since she is deaf.
“I realized I had the skills for gaming and got more motivated to keep improving,” she tells Teen Vogue. “I started to win a lot of matches and became more confident. I believed in myself. The fact that I've inspired others is one of the reasons I kept going, knowing that I'm a trailblazer for female gamers, deaf gamers, and even for myself. I like to push my limits.”
Ewok started broadcasting on Twitch back in October 2018 and quickly gained a massive following and eventually caught the attention of FaZe, which she joined earlier this summer. It was a major milestone since she’s the group’s first female player.
“My biggest challenge is not giving up when you've had a bad streak,” she says. “There will always be doubters and haters anywhere you go. The more you become successful, there will be more of the toxicity. The important thing is to know who you are, your value, and your potential. Use them as a driving factor to be even more successful. Believe it or not, the world needs you. You can make a difference. Trust.”

Louisa Cannell
17/19
Xiye Bastida, 17, Climate Champion
By Marilyn La Jeunesse
Seventeen-year-old Xiye Bastida won’t let her age define her ability to create change. In fact, the high school senior’s already made a name for herself as a climate activist dedicated to protecting the earth. In 2018, her activism led to a speaking gig at the United Nations World Urban Forum and being honored with the “Spirit of the UN” award. Most recently, she helped organize the Fridays for Future youth climate strike and the global climate strike with Greta Thunberg.
Born and raised in Mexico, Xiye first became involved in climate activism after witnessing the world around her changing rapidly, resulting in life-altering problems that were not being addressed by the world’s governments.
“I was raised in an Otomi indigenous culture, which means that the way in which I live my life is with the earth and not from the earth,” Xiye tells Teen Vogue. “Indigenous people’s cosmology is that you have to take care of the earth and give back because the earth gives so much to us. When I saw that this balance was not being respected is when I started speaking up.”
Xiye quickly learned that it wasn’t enough to lobby politicians or sign petitions. Instead, she searched for a way to alter the way the world talks about the climate crisis. She explains that the global crisis won’t be solved solely with technological innovation, climate panels, or petitions. Instead, she argues that the world needs knowledge, spirit, morality, empathy, reconnection, and collaboration.
“It’s about all of us,” she explains. “The climate crisis is complex — it affects all sectors of society, it affects all generations, and it affects all ecosystems. That is why we need everyone."
Louisa Cannell
18/19
Zandra Cunningham, 19, Business Buff
By Sara Radin
As a little girl, Zandra Cunningham would often watch her grandmother — a former model, designer, and seamstress — get dressed. “I was amazed by the way she masterfully put together the simplest outfit. She was poised and confident, and her presence just commanded the attention of everyone in the room,” Zandra tells Teen Vogue. It was her relationship with her grandmother that instilled in her an early love for all things beauty, including makeup, nails, hair, lashes, and lip gloss, she says. Ultimately Zandra found that experimenting with these things allowed her to express her own creativity and individuality.
“As I continued to observe the beautiful women in my life, I realized that beauty had very little to do with makeup or ‘girly’ stuff. It was actually about confidence,” Zandra says. This notion has carried through to her work as a now 19-year-old entrepreneur, author, and philanthropist who founded an eco-friendly, all-natural skin-care business called Zandra Beauty. After noticing, at the age of nine, that most of the products she got from the mall would leave her “dry, itchy, and unhappy,” Cunningham decided to make her own products, ones that wouldn’t irritate her skin and would also smell good. She started by making her own lip balms and whipped shea body butters, which were sold at local farmers markets in her hometown of Buffalo, New York.
Now, 10 years later, Zandra’s company makes everything from body washes and scrubs to soaps and deodorants, donating 10% of every purchase to support girls’ education while also providing entrepreneurial education, STEAM experiences, and mentorship for young people. In 2018, she also coauthored a book about entrepreneurship. In the future, Zandra hopes to continue empowering young girls to feel confident and encouraging them to put their skills and education to use in their local communities and around the world.

Louisa Cannell
19/19
Zyahna Bryant, 18, Racial Justice Organizer
By Sammie Scott
As it was for many young black people, the death of Trayvon Martin was a defining moment for 18-year-old Zyahna Bryant. “It opened my eyes to the interconnectedness of the many injustices around me,” says the activist and community organizer. In response, at just 12 years old, she organized her first protest: a #JusticeForTrayvon rally in her hometown of Charlottesville.
That first direct action has led to several years of racial justice organizing: “I started this work with the intention of standing in solidarity, but [Trayvon’s death] caused me to reflect on the injustices that were happening in my own front yard,” she tells Teen Vogue. Three years later, at 15, she led a campaign to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee from what is now known as Emancipation Park in Charlottesville. And this past spring, Zyahna, then the president of her high school’s black student union, staged a walkout to demand a more racially just education system.
Now Zyahna is settling into her first semester at the University of Virginia, where she remains active both on campus and in the greater community.
Admittedly, this work isn’t always easy. “Young black activists have been doing radical work around civil rights issues for decades,” Zyahna says. “Oftentimes the work that we do is criticized while our counterparts are praised for holding similar ideas and participating in similar direct actions.”
Fortunately, Zyahna has vast hope for what the world can and should look like 21 years from now: “I hope that the world is listening to black women. I hope that people understand that liberation cannot only happen at the polls, but it must happen every single day…. I hope that equity is the reality. I hope that in 21 years, people are not just talking but actually doing; people’s lives depend on it.”