Back in 2017,  Jamie Margolin, a Seattle high school student, founded an organization called Future Voters for 350ppm. (“Future voters” meaning young people who can’t vote yet, and “350 ppm” referring to a safe level of atmospheric carbon dioxide that the world blew past long ago). But things didn’t go as planned, and the group ended up being short-lived.

“Keep failing and failing until you get it right,” Margolin writes in her book Youth To Power, released on June 2. “My failure with that organization was the precursor to starting Zero Hour. So it all paid off.” Soon afterward, Margolin co-founded Zero Hour, a youth-led nonprofit that advocates for climate action and environmental justice and organized the Youth Climate March in Washington, D.C., in 2018.

Youth to Power includes a foreword by Greta Thunberg, the 17-year-old climate activist who sparked a worldwide youth climate movement by skipping school every Friday to protest outside the Swedish Parliament building. “This book is your toolbox,” Thunberg writes. Here are some of the book’s best tips.

  1. Find your “why.” 
  2. Find your allies. 
  3. Be loud.
  4. Be creative and tell a story. 
  5. Make time. 
  6. Search for healthy escapes.

Read the full article about tips for becoming a youth activist by Rachel Ramirez at Grist.