High School Diplomats: Can A Teen Change Foreign Policy?
- Mar 30
- 2 min read
By: Joshua Blond
As seen across the news and social media, the famous “how dare you” speech delivered by Greta Thunberg quickly made her the face of global climate change prevention. At just 16 years old, she demanded change among some of the world's most powerful leaders at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in 2019 (Piven, 2023).
Many believe the possibility of a teenager changing foreign policies is nearly impossible, if not completely impossible, but this is far from the truth. Greta Thunberg is an example of many teenage trailblazers who have changed our minds, our legal systems, and our lives.
Malala Yousafzai is an example of a teen who changed our minds, then changed our laws. At the age of twelve, she wrote blogs about life under the Taliban and the hardships of life in a place where girls could not go to school. After an assassination attempt, she became an advocate for girls' education. She spoke at major events, influencing foreign policy by talking to foreign leaders. Her humanitarian work led her to become the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate (Juda, 2014).
Change is not just an individual act. The saying “power in numbers” does not only apply when the numbers are adults, but also to youth. The 2018 March For Our Lives was a student-led protest against gun violence in which more than 750 different rallies of gathered students caught the government's attention, initiating a need for more gun regulation laws (“March For Our Lives,” 2018).
The world may think that change is something only to be done by adults, but history has made it evident that teenagers can be the trailblazers we need to make change.
Works Cited
Juda, Edyta. “10 Youths Changing the World.” AU-MIR, 11 Feb. 2014, https://ironline.american.edu/blog/10-youths-changing-world/.
“March For Our Lives.” March For Our Lives, https://marchforourlives.org/. Accessed 17 Feb. 2026.
Piven, Ben. “‘How Dare You?’ Asks Thunberg at the UN Climate Summit.” Al Jazeera, https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2019/9/23/greta-thunberg-to-un-climate-summit-how-dare-you. Accessed 17 Feb. 2026.
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