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Malala Yousafzai - At 17 she won the Nobel Peace Prize for her tireless activism for girls' rights to education. She first gained public attention in 2009 with a BBC blog, where she wrote about what it was like living under the Taliban, who came to power in her region (Pakistan's Swat district) in 2007.

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Malala Yousafzai - Under Taliban rule girls were not allowed to attend school. They'd also outlawed activities like dancing and watching television. She openly advocated against this, criticizing the group, and paid the price on October 9, 2012, when on her way back from school she was shot and gravely injured by a Taliban extremist. She was treated and recovered in the UK, and has since become one of the world's most vocal advocates for girls' education around the world.

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Greta Thunberg - Current climate-movement icon Greta Thunberg is the most visible climate activist in the world. She's become the leading figure for the environmental movement and is regularly invited to political gatherings on that very topic.

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Greta Thunberg - She's also managed to inspire other young people to take a stand against climate change which led to massive climate strikes among young people of Europe and the rest of the world.

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Bana Al-Abed - Aleppo-born Bana Al-Abed became known during the siege of her city in 2016 during the Syrian War, when she was only seven years old. She was one of the few sources of information coming out of Aleppo after it became too dangerous for journalists to enter. She documented the tragic events happening via Twitter, including what her daily life looked like.

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Bana Al-Abed - Her English-speaking mother, Fatemah, helped her write the tweets. Today, Al-Abed is living in Turkey, where she continues to advocate for all Syrian children.

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Emma González - Having survived the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, Emma González is now a fierce advocate for stricter gun laws in the US.

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Emma González - She and a group of survivors from the shooting, which claimed the lives of 17 people on February 14, 2018, launched the hashtag #NeverAgain. During a protest in Washington, D.C. not long after, she stood in front of 800,000 people and gave an extremely poignant speech that lasted about 6 minutes and 20 seconds, the same time it took for the shooter to kill his seventeen victims.

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Emma González - The event was organized by March For Our Lives, a collective that wants to reduce civilian gun ownership in the US by 30%.

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Timoci Naulusala - "My home, my school, my source of food, water, money was totally destroyed. My life was in chaos." These were the haunting words spoken by Timoci Naulusala, a 12-year-old Fijian boy whose village was completely devastated by a cyclone in 2016, at the opening of the 2017 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany.

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Timoci Naulusala - Though only 12 at the time, he received a standing ovation from those present. Not only did he express his deep concerns about the slow destruction of his island as a result of rising levels of sea water, he also urged world leaders to finally turn their words into action.

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Sonita Alizadeh - Sonita Alizadeh is an Afghan rapper and passionate advocate against the practice of child marriage, coming from the unique perspective of having almost been sold into marriage not once, but twice, by her parents.

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Sonita Alizadeh - She garnered fame with her 'Brides for Sale' music video, which discussed the practice of forced marriage. In 2015, the nonprofit organization Strongheart Group offered to help her study in the US, where she has resided ever since.

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Joshua Wong - Joshua Wong of Hong Kong, at age 14, became one of the founding members of Scholarism, a student activist organization formed in 2011 to curb China's influence on semi-autonomous Hong Kong's education curriculum. In 2012, the organization managed to mobilize a total of 12,000 students and professors to protest the perceived Chinese encroachment.

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Joshua Wong - In 2014, Wong was also one of the most prominent figures in the Umbrella Movement, a political movement working toward political reform and against Chinese influence in Hong Kong elections.

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Joshua Wong - During the round of Hong Kong protests, for democratic change and more autonomy for Hong Kong from Beijing, Joshua Wong was seen as a prominent figure. He's been arrested a total of four times, but has not wavered on any of his stances.

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Inna Shevchenko - Ukrainian Shevchencko was only 24 years old when she joined the Ukrainian feminist protest group, Femen. These days she's one of the figureheads and one of the most recognizable faces in the collective. Femen was founded in 2008 in Ukraine as a feminist activist group, and they quickly garnered international notoriety with their controversial topless protests against sex tourism and the exploitation of women in their country.

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Inna Shevchenko - These days it's an international organization with its head office in Paris, France. Shevchenko has become the face that many associate with the movement. She is a published author and has participated in talks at institutions such as Cambridge and Strasbourg University.

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Payal Jangid - Payal Jangid managed to escape a child slavery network in India. Since then she's become an activist for the rights of children, raising awareness among parents on the importance of raising children in a safe and peaceful environment.

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Payal Jangid - She's also an active member of her region's Children's Parliament, and advocates for, among other things, separate toilets and an end to child marriage. In 2015, at only 12 years old, she met the Obamas.

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Blair Imani - American Blair Imani is a black Muslim who in 2017 came out as queer. She gained notoriety after being arrested in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 2016, at the protest for the shooting of black resident Alton Sterling by Louisiana police during his arrest.

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Blair Imani - Blair Imani now uses her fame to raise awareness about about racism, homophobia, and feminism.

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Desmond Napoles - Desmond Napoles was born in 2007, and is known primarily under his drag queen monicker, Desmond is Amazing.

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Desmond Napoles - Despite support from his mother, he and his family have run into numerous obstacles, such as regularly having child protective services called on them by complete strangers. Reportedly, "none of the complaints have ever found any wrongdoing."

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Desmond Napoles - Despite these problems Desmond seems more determined than ever to continue to be a vocal advocate for LGBT rights.

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Jazz Jennings - Jazz Jennings is a young transgender woman and YouTube star. She is a fierce and outspoken advocate for transgender rights.

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Jazz Jennings -

She has her own TLC reality show called 'I Am Jazz,' that centers around her life as a young transgender woman and that of her family, portraying the struggles on both sides. In 2015 she was included in Time magazine's 30 most influential adolescents.

See also: Famous people who were ahead of their time

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