7 Teen Girls Who Are Changing The World

Malala Yousafzai is literally the cover girl for world-changing activists. Her outspoken advocacy for girls' education in her Taliban-controlled region of Pakistan, which she began by blogging at age 11, culminated in a Taliban gunman boarding her school bus and shooting her in the head. After barely surviving the attack she redoubled her efforts, inspiring millions of people worldwide and becoming the youngest person, and first girl, to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Price.

Eighth-grader Julia Bluhm noticed something a lot of teenagers notice, and a lot of teenagers complain about: that the girls featured in teen magazines are not only models, they're photoshopped to the point where they're beyond human perfection. But rather than grumble about it, Bluhm stepped up and spoke out. She created an online petition to persuade the editors at Seventeen magazine to recognize that this practice leads to low self-esteem and eating disorders, and to only use real, un-retouched models.

And it worked.

Tavi Gevinson is ridiculously successful at what she does. At age 15, the former fashion blogger started Rookie magazine, a for-girls-by-girls platform for talking honestly, openly, and smartly about feminism and other issues unrelated to fashion.

Along with Gevinson's early success came backlash — fashion editors, media critics, and haters who felt this "rookie" had no business playing with the big kids and who weren't shy about saying so. These days, in addition to her editorial duties, she has an acting and singing career and recently inked a book deal with Razorbill.

Jules Spector, 13, has become a prominent voice in the feminist movement, founding the popular and influential blog Teen Feminist, which serves as a platform for a broad spectrum of feminist issues. From campaigning against child prostitution in developing countries to posting feminist deconstructions of movies like Frozen, Spector has only begun her crusade.

At 15, Zhan Haite has gained worldwide notoriety for her education activism, challenging China's longstanding policy of hukou, which blocked thousands of migrant workers from taking the high school entrance exams that would give them a chance to lift their lives and families out of economic hardship.

Over her parents' objections, and despite fears of backlash in a country that doesn't have the best reputation for embracing dissident speech and protesters, Haite persevered and got the government to loosen its regulations. Though there is still much more to be done, Haite is just getting started.

Allyson Ahlstrom is a fashion philanthropist who, at age 15, started an initiative to give new, donated designer clothes to poor teens who would never be able to afford them. Threads for Teens has turned from a hobby into a mission to "inspire teenage girls to live out their dreams."

Now with Queen Latifah and other prominent supporters on board, she's taken Threads on tour, embarking on a 49-city tour last year with the goal of bringing high fashion and high self-esteem to over 1,000 girls nationwide.

Sarah Gale, a trilingual 16-year-old from Boca Raton, has been working to change the world for years, traveling to her mother's home country of Colombia and working to improve the lives of teens living in crushing poverty. Gale has been named a co-chair of Girl Up, the UN Foundation campaign to promote the health, safety and education of women in developing countries and works hard to raise awareness, and funds, to help young women around the world who not only need the most help, but also have the most trouble getting it.