5 Awe-Inspiring Young People Who Are Changing The World Right Now

These young people are making huge changes.

The World Youth Forum is a platform for young people who want to make real change, and you can be a part of it. Here 5 inspiring young people that are doing their own thing and changing the world while they're at it.

1. This 23-year-old is tackling the ocean's plastic pollution problem.

The Ocean Cleanup / Via theoceancleanup.com

At just 23 years old, Boyan Slat is making it his mission to keep the world’s oceans clean. An inventor since childhood, Boyan has worked through his non-profit project, The Ocean Cleanup, to develop a way to collect and clear more than half of the plastic that currently floats in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, located between Hawaii and California. As there are currently 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris in our seas, Boyan's work with The Ocean Cleanup stands to make a huge impact on the world we all live in.

2. From bricks to robotics, one teen is building open-source prosthetics.

Microsoft / Via unlimitedtomorrow.com

Most people remember playing with building blocks when they were a kid, but few can confess to building something as awesome as Easton LaChappelle. An avid and self-taught builder since childhood, Easton put his skills to great use at age 14 when he made a robotic hand out of plastic building bricks, fishing wire, and electrical tubing. From there, he moved on to 3D printing, eventually designing a prototype for an affordable prosthetic arm he could operate with his mind.

As well-engineered as it was visionary, Easton’s invention brought him to the attention of some of the tech world’s biggest luminaries and led to him founding his own robotics company, Unlimited Tomorrow. Today, Easton continues his work making artificial limb technology accessible to all those who need it, even going as far as to give the designs to his original 3D-printed robotic arm away on his website, so that others can experiment and refine his invention.

3. Tired of not seeing enough diversity in her books at school, one little girl decided to write her own.

Marley Dias / Via grassrootscommunityfoundation.org

Like most 11-year-old girls, Marley Dias loved to read. But there was one problem with the books she would often be given to read at school: The characters in them weren’t very diverse. In 2015, Marley decided to do something about it and launched the #1000BlackGirlBooks campaign.

The campaign’s goal is a simple but effective one: collect and donate 1,000 children's and young adult books that feature black girls as the lead character for other young black girls to read. Nearly two years later, Marley has gotten over 9,000 books and even landed a book deal of her own with a major children’s publisher. Marley's first book is set to be released early 2018.

4. Solving the world's energy problem, one coffee bean at a time.

bio-bean / Via bio-bean.com

Developing new sources of green energy often means being inventive, and Arthur Kay is certainly living up to that reputation. Arthur founded the company bio-bean to take waste coffee grounds and recycle them into advanced biofuels and biochemicals, and he recently won the title of Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2017 BusinessGreen Leaders Awards. At a time when the development of sustainable energy sources feels increasingly urgent, bio-bean’s goal of turning waste into green power is a noble and vital one.

5. This 10-year-old boy is pals with your favourite technologist.

Yuma Soerianto / Via madebyyuma.com

Yuma Soerianto isn't just a 10-year-old boy who loves programming; he's a 10-year-old boy who got to hang out in the same hallowed circles as Tim Cook and Michelle Obama at Apple's 2017 developers' conference. The conference's youngest-ever attendee (for the second year in a row), Yuma started teaching himself code when he was 6 years old and has four apps on Apple's App Store.

These include the wonderfully named Weather Duck, a weather app for kids, and Hunger Button, an app that helps hungry families find a place to eat. A two-time Apple WWDC attendee at only 10, there's no telling what Yuma will do by the time he reaches adulthood, but the tech world is waiting to see.

Do the people on this list inspire you to do something different?

The World Youth Forum takes place in Sharm el-Sheikh from 4–10 November and could be your chance to make a change. Register today to take advantage of this rare opportunity to do good.

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