Meet the teens using social media to change lives

Three young activists show how the power of social media can make real change to the issues that matter.

These are the teenagers that have harnessed the power of social media to make a real difference.

Connor McLeod, 15, Tactile Cash Markings

(pictured above)

When Connor McLeod was five years old, he wrote a letter to then-Prime Minister John Howard and told him he wanted his job.

Fast forward to 2016 and the bright 15-year-old is already making waves in government. He recently launched and won his first ever public campaign – to see Australian money printed with tactile markings. The first run of braille banknotes due to hit wallets from September (2016).

“He’s always had that fighting spirit,” mum Ally Lancaster says. “His grandfather lives in Canada and they have had tactile features on their notes since 2001. Then when he found out 27 other currencies do, too, it made him even more determined to change it here.”

He may have big ambitions, but Connor is just like any other teenager; he enjoys listening to music, hanging out with friends and going to the movies.

“To have equal and independent access to our national currency isn’t a want or a whim; it’s a basic human right.”

The only difference is Connor was born blind.

For a young boy who just wants to get out and experience the world, not being able to confidently handle money was starting to have a profound impact on his confidence and self-esteem.

“It was becoming more distressing and embarrassing for him to have to come and find me and say ‘how much is this’, or be out with mates and ask someone ‘what have I got?’” Ally says, adding that most entry-level jobs require cash handling and Connor did not want his disability to affect his employment prospects.

“To have equal and independent access to our national currency isn’t a want or a whim; it’s a basic human right.”

It was for this reason that Connor decided to start lobbying the RBA, the Treasurer and other members of parliament in an attempt to get a private members bill put through to make it legislation. They spoke to various media outlets to bring some attention to the campaign and also launched a change.org petition.

Within weeks it had garnered more than 50,000 signatures.

Connor’s proudest moment came earlier this year when the RBA invited him to touch the first tactile notes hot off the press.

Angelina Popovski, 15, Free-Range Farming

Angelina Popovski’s campaign against one of the country’s biggest supermarket giants began as a school project on battery farming.

Little did she know at the time the online appeal, which she started to “raise awareness in the local community”, would soon attract almost 100,000 signatures and see the story picked up by news outlets across the country.

Initially, Angelina’s aim was to make people aware of the abhorrent treatment of caged chickens.

But when the self-confessed animal lover discovered Aldi Australia was still selling eggs from caged chickens, she couldn’t stand by and stay silent.

The Melbourne teen started putting signs up around school, rallied for the tuck shop to use free-range eggs and even started a meat-free Wednesday initiative.

She also started a change.org petition to get the word out.

“I just thought it was going to be a small school project, but to see so many people connect with it has been really amazing.”

“One day during class I got an email saying that Aldi was going to stop selling caged eggs by 2025,” the 15-year-old from Alphington remembers. “That was pretty cool.

“I told the class and they all started clapping and cheering for me. I was really happy.”

The statement, which was posted on the company’s Facebook page, came after the petition saw a rush of people take to social media to express their disappointment over Aldi’s support of battery farming.

“Signatures were going up by the minute,” Angelina recalls. “It had only been about two months so I was a bit surprised because I didn’t think it was going to happen so fast.”

Once Angelina put the petition on Facebook, her family and friends began sharing it. It was even picked up by animal rights organisations, such as Animals Australia, which organised demonstrations outside Aldi stores, with volunteers holding placards plastered with the slogan  “a caged egg is a bad egg”.

“I just thought it was going to be a small school project,” Angelina says with pride.

“But to see so many people connect with it has been really amazing.”

Chloe Scott, 17, Dairy Relief Fund

Chloe Scott has learnt first-hand the power of crying over spilt milk.

Proving that one voice can make a big difference, she recently won her battle against two of the world’s biggest dairy giants, Fonterra and Murray Goulburn, securing half a billion dollars in relief funds for farmers, as well as $2 million to establish a commodity milk price index.

The victory came after a change.org petition she set up from her school computer went viral across the country.

The 17-year-old, who grew up on a farm near Camperdown in Western Victoria, started the online petition to speak out against “massive cuts to milk prices” that threatened the livelihood of her family.

“It’s good that the government is actually listening and just goes to show that people still have the power.”

What started as a humble online plea quickly turned into something far bigger than Chloe could ever have imagined. It received an outpouring of support, amassing more than 160,000 signatures in four weeks, was picked up by media outlets across the country and travelled to ministerial inboxes within the upper echelons of government, who could no longer ignore the milk price war being waged on Aussie farmers.

So she could hardly believe her eyes when Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce announced the Government’s promise to protect farmers directly on her petition’s home page.

“It’s good that the government is actually listening and just goes to show that people still have the power,” she says.

“I hope it will make a huge, positive difference.”