A Letter To My Future Self: Climate Activist And UN Advisor Sophia Kianni

Dear future me,

At 21, I have fulfilled dreams that were once so lofty I couldn’t dare breathe them into existence. From serving as the youngest UN Advisor in US history, to building the world’s largest youth-led climate non-profit, the hard work we have put in has manifested in a mind-spinning series of experiences. But with that has come a heavy dose of self-doubt and confusion. Often feeling too young, too naïve, not ready to be saddled by the weight of accolades and your own expectations. Like other college students, you have been scared of judgment, which is made worse by an unpreparedness to experience the lessons of adulthood in front of thousands.

My best friend recently told me, “Make mistakes, make a lot of them, because otherwise you will spend all your time paralyzed in the pursuit of perfection.”

The most beautiful thing about growing up has been the growth: the external, what I have chosen to share with the world, and the internal, lessons that we will carry and embody. I hope that the narrow, competitive mindset that governs so much of our world has come to an end and that in its place you have helped nurture a new culture of intentional, steady progress that brings together people and the planet. No great social change happens without radical levels of connection and collaboration between people and communities. And there is no social transformation – no solution to global warming – in the absence of personal transformation.

This is why Climate Cardinals now relies on thousands of young people (the average age is just 16) to translate essential knowledge about climate change into more than 100 languages for institutions from Yale to the United Nations. Through a collaboration with Google, we orchestrated an intergenerational partnership that bridged grassroots power with technological prowess, resulting in millions of words of climate translation. With friends, we have shown the world the power of a small group of determined teenagers who have relentlessly pursued their dream of democratizing access to climate education in between homecoming dances and homework.

By yourself, you can go far, but with others, you can go further. I hope you continue to learn and honor the work and leadership of those who have come before you. Every single conversation we have had in the last few years has resulted in the opportunity to learn something new; with Greta Thunberg and Vanessa Nakate, we demonstrated the potential of writing as a means of protest. From Van Jones and Kim Kardashian, we learned about how to build coalitions to fix our broken criminal justice system. In conversation with Whitney Wolfe Herd, we shared the importance of embodying courage and compassion as a female entrepreneur. Because of Chelsea Clinton, we have been touched by the impact of mentorship and education. Alongside Faith Hill and Amber Valletta, we witnessed the leverage of celebrity to shed light on social issues. In the company of the Pope and the Dalai Lama, we experienced the power of combining spirituality with science to mobilize people.