She was 12 years old when she was meeting her country's leaders to demand a plastic ban. Today, eight years later, she's still fighting for the planet. Her story is featured in the documentary Bigger Than Us, screening at this year's Cannes film festival.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00I remember learning for the first time what Mahatma Gandhi did,
00:03what Nelson Mandela did, what Lady Diana was able to do,
00:06Ibu Kartini in Indonesia.
00:08And I remember these individuals were able to create a positive impact in their community.
00:14And so together with my younger sister, we were like,
00:16we don't want to wait until we're older to start making a difference.
00:19And we looked then in our surrounding and said,
00:22OK, what's a problem that we can tackle?
00:24And plastic pollution was a very strong reality
00:26and something we knew we wanted to take action on.
00:30I think one of the biggest challenges as well at the very beginning
00:50was not being taken seriously.
00:52You know, coming on stage or entering a room,
00:54being the youngest ones there below the age of 30,
00:57also being little young girls on the island of Bali,
01:01you know, it was, aw, how cute.
01:04But nothing more beyond that.
01:06The time for inspiration only is over.
01:27The time for inspiration only is over.
01:29The time for inspiration only is over.
02:27The government needs to commit.
02:36Tick tock, tick tock, where are you?
02:41And, you know, for instance, we would miss out on school
02:44to attend government meetings that took hours.
02:46And at the end of the meeting, I remember getting inside the car
02:50and looking at my sister and saying, now what?
02:55We kept going and made sure that the change we wanted to see
02:58came by keeping the persistence, walking our talk,
03:02knowing that we could not give up.
03:03And the best solution was leading by example.
03:15But even now, I'm 20 years old and still today,
03:18the biggest challenge or the biggest frustration
03:21is that change is happening too slowly.
03:24And I think this is common across all change makers at the front lines.
03:27We see solutions, we know what we can do.
03:30It feels like it's on our fingertips.
03:32And yet it takes years and years before we see the change
03:35we want to see take place.
03:55Came at a point personally in my life where, you know,
03:58after so long out there on the front lines,
04:00I really felt this missing connection in my life,
04:03this missing puzzle piece where I knew that meeting other young change makers
04:07would be so beneficial to not only keeping me on my feet,
04:11me on my toes, but just recognizing that we are not alone.
04:15The level of selflessness that I adore in these change makers
04:20throughout the film, this ability to kind of step beyond themselves
04:24and show up for everyone and anything, no matter who you are.
04:28And I think that's what makes this film so special.
04:46That was one of the biggest lessons that each and every one of them showed me.
04:56That was the last shot of...
04:58Bigger Than Us!
05:15One of the first questions we always got, no matter where we were,
05:19was, how can I do what you do?
05:22And that's really where Youthtopia, our new project, comes in.
05:37So many times and too often still today,
05:40we are hearing companies saying people do not want it
05:43and governments are saying people are not ready for it.
05:46So I think we have a huge responsibility, and again, people power.
05:50We have to really step into this role and see the potential that we have
05:54to decide what ends up on the supermarket shelves.
05:56So use that power, use your voice, and see what changes will come out of it.
06:02You might be surprised.
06:05Melania, I'm so impressed with you.
06:14I wanted to share five major tips on how I've continued to be an activist
06:19from home, with or without a pandemic.
06:32What keeps me coming back every single morning, what makes me able to wake up.
06:37And also one thing that I learned with Bigger Than Us,
06:39and the work that I do with Youthtopia, is that, again, we're not alone.
06:43There are so many of us, and I think it's really important to be able to,
06:47you know, feel that power of a generation,
06:50which was what we are on the front lines,
06:53trying our hardest to get change happening.