Rising Star of the Year 2000

In recent years, the isolation and pressures of the pandemic have exacerbated gender-based violence and economic vulnerability for women and girls. As a young woman who has witnessed the devastating impact of gender-based violence, Imane founded ‘Concealed Narratives’ – a local youth-led initiative using storytelling and digital advocacy to raise awareness around gender-based violence, promote mental, sexual, and reproductive health and rights, empower women and girls, and amplify marginalised voices in Morocco. Since its launch a year ago, ‘Concealed Narratives’ has reached 7,500 women and girls through various social media campaigns and events that serve as safe spaces for women and girls.

In 2020, 14-year-old Hanson took notice of the racial injustice and inequality of African Americans highlighted in the media. She said this inspired her to create a way for kids, like herself, to identify and share their feelings on why Black Lives Matter through poetry and artwork. Within the first year, "I Matter" poetry competition received about 150 submissions from students around the world. By 2022, that number has risen to over 700.

Liam and William are the founders of Instant, an online checkout platform that has just closed out a $2.2 million pre-seed raise with backing from well-known investors, including Blackbird Ventures, Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen, Zip founder Larry Diamond and Reinventure.

I run and lead the Global Youth Economics Forum, a fiscally sponsored 501(c)(3) student-run organization that aims to connect driven students to the world of business, finance, economics, and higher education. We have a unique model of hands-on learning, mentorship, events, and competitions to cultivate a college and career support system and community for our members. We have hosted 45+ virtual events so far featuring economists, entrepreneurs, educators, etc, and an in-person tour of Accenture's NYC offices (recently). We also believe that putting learning into action is crucial to have our members understand and apply economics knowledge outside of the classroom. We piloted various competitions such as an international essay competition, a stock market competition, quiz bowls, and more. We also have a college mentorship program that connects underserved students to college mentors who provide free 1 on 1 help on college applications, internships advice, financial aid, and more. Through our collective initiatives, we've been able to garner an international student member base of 1000+ student members, and reached 1M+ students through social media, events, competitions, and more!

Manisha Meem Nipun Hijra is a trans youth trainer and human rights activist from the southern part of Bangladesh. She identifies as a trans woman and has been working as the representative of the transgender community in the remote areas of Bangladesh including the hill tracts. In 2019, she started working for ‘Pathchola Foundation’ as a founding member. She provides a variety of programmes and emergency aid that have significantly impacted more than 3,000 transgender/Hijra people. The organisation has also rescued ten transgender individuals from sex work in 2020-2021 and helped them build sustainable livelihood.

Mariam is a young Palestinian refugee living in Lebanon. Despite the challenges of life as a refugee, at age 19, Mariam founded her own initiative, ‘Alam W Mahay’, to erase illiteracy among street children in Lebanon and to introduce volunteerism among young people to help enhance their skills. Mariam has mentored over 3,200 youths, internationally, on various platforms and programmes. She provides training sessions such as time management, public speaking, storytelling, and project planning – all skills she believes are essential for developing leaders. Mariam also gives motivational and inspirational talks, long-term mentorship, and capacity-building workshops.

Max is the Founder of Ultraviolet, an angel investing syndicate of the country's leading tech creators and founders.

Through advocacy, I was awarded 16.5 million grant from federal VIC Government to develop sustainable E-waste disposal services, which was accompanied by a $50,000 grant from VicHealth to engage youth in body image & mental health events. This year, I have been so grateful to be able to represent Australian Youth’s voices and spoken at the Mental Health Foundation Australia National Summit for 600+ people, and have represented over 110,000 people as a youth councillor for the Boorondara Region.For my community endeavours, I was awarded the Australia Day Young Citizen of the Year.

At age 18, Rianna established the ‘Dominica Dementia Foundation’ – a youth led dementia charity in memory of her grandfather. It is the only dementia-focused charity in the Dominica to this day. Through the foundation, she has supported over 500 older people in care homes and reached over 20,000 people through awareness-raising across the Caribbean region, and has raised over £6,000 for dementia causes. Outside of her charity, Rianna gives talks and workshops on youth entrepreneurship, climate change and gender equality, and is currently working with the Government of Dominica to develop a ‘National Plan for Dementia’ for Dominica.

Hailing from a drought-prone area of Maharashtra, Sanskruti understood the problem of declining groundwater. Over the course of three years, Sanskruti and her team of 25 other girls started spreading awareness and generating volunteers to build water management infrastructure like trenches, rainwater harvesting systems and drip irrigation. At first, it was not easy; people didn’t believe girls should or could do the kinds of work they were promoting, and they faced opposition and discrimination from all sides. But following a heavy rainfall, the resources she and her team had built started to work, and the tide began to turn – for both water management and attitudes towards women and girls in her community.

Sareya Taylor is a 19 year old White Mountain Apache and Navajo student. Sareya’s pronouns are they/them/she/her. Sareya is a poet who focuses on the Indigenous peoples of America and the trauma they may have experienced in their lives. Sareya also brings attention to and counters the stereotypes and misrepresentations of Natives that our society’s media and culture supports. They served as the Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate of Phoenix and currently serve as a member of the International Indigenous Youth Council and a honorary 25 under 25 youth leader.

In 2017 Sonny, then a low-income first-generation college student at the ‘University of Michigan’, founded ‘Paani’ with other Pakistani-American students to build water wells in Pakistan, one of the countries most affected by lack of secure access to clean water. The group has grown from Sonny and his roommate Arhum selling donuts on campus to fund ‘Paani’s’ first well, to raising over $3.1 million from over 20,000 donors to build over 9,300 water wells that serve more than 732,500 villagers. ‘Paani’ has also donated $500,000 in medical supplies to COVID-19 clinics, distributed over 1 million meals, and built schools for refugees while galvanising thousands of youths globally through community-based awareness.