Claire Wasserman | West Hollywood, CA

women’s right’s activist, author & founder | @ladiesgetpaid

“we were sued for gender discrimination by a group of men’s rights activists (seriously), and we not only stayed in business, we actually thrived. to pay for our legal fees, we were able to crowdfund over $115,000 in three weeks from 2,000 people. we were absolutely blown away by how the community rallied behind us. i learned how resilient i am. and when things don’t go the way i wanted, i repeat this: “I did the best I could with the resources, experiences, and information I had at that time.””

Lettie Shumate | Leland, NC

historian & anti-racism educator | @sincerely.lettie

“many people think Benjamin Franklin was once a president, and the number of people who don’t know that Jim Crow was actually not a person is baffling. there is a ton of history people do not know the truth about. so many people want to reply before listening. you know? i come across this often when i talk about history and racism in America.”

Leah Thomas | Ventura, CA

environmental activist & writer | @greengirlleah

“i’ve never felt something is all or nothing. we just don’t have that long when, say, hoping the temperature of the world doesn’t increase. we need to make some serious changes if we want to keep the global temperature change increase below 1.5 degrees Celsius. climate policy needs to be a priority. but: progress over perfection. things take time. little steps in the right direction are better than no steps at all.” 

[ed. note: according to The New York Times, “the consequences of jumping to 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius… could expose tens of millions more people worldwide to life-threatening heat waves, water shortages and coastal flooding. Half a degree may mean the difference between a world with coral reefs and Arctic summer sea ice and a world without them.”]