“You do make a difference. You have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”

Wangari Maathai (1940— 2011) was a Kenyan politician and environmental activist who was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize for Peace, becoming the first black African woman to win a Nobel Prize. Her work was often considered both unwelcome and subversive in her own country, where her outspokenness constituted stepping far outside traditional gender roles. While working with the National Council of Women of Kenya, Maathai developed the idea that village women could improve the environment by planting trees to provide a fuel source and to slow the processes of deforestation and desertification.The Green Belt Movement, an organization she founded in 1977, has now planted some 51 million trees in Kenya and has inspired neighboring African countries to do the same.

Edith Piaf (1915 – 1963) was a French singer, songwriter, cabaret performer and film actress noted as France's national chanteuse and one of the country's widely known international stars.

Dolly Parton (1946–) was one of 12 children born into a one-room household, hers is a rags-to-riches success story. She started started singing in public at age 6 and and she still going strong at 74, unifying diverse audiences with her open-hearted personality and talent.

Imogen Cunningham (1883-1976) was an American photographer known for her botanical photography, nudes, and industrial landscapes. She was one of the earliest American women to work as a professional photographer and also had one of the longest careers, working and showing into her nineties.

Mae Jemison (1956–) is the first African-American female astronaut. In 1992, she flew into space aboard the Endeavour, becoming the first African-American woman in space.

Greta Thunberg is a 16-year old climate activist from Sweden. A school girl with Asbergers, standing at less than 5ft, she started the ‘School Strike for Climate’ protests. Over the past year, she has become a global superstar of the climate change movement, promoting #fridaysforfuture alongside millions of school children (and now adults) across the globe to demand politicians, governments, and corporations take action on climate change.On Friday, August 20th, 2018, Greta began to sit outside the Parliament building in Stockholm every day during school time with a sign that read “Skolstrejk för klimatet’ (School Strike for Climate) demanding the country reduce carbon emissions. She quickly gained media coverage and the support of students and activists all over the world, who joined her voice in their own school strikes, demanding adults and lawmakers to take climate crisis and the future of the planet seriously. 🌍Since last August, Greta has inspired a generation of climate activists, speaking to governments and in international forums across the globe. Her determined and clear speaking style may be partly due to her autism, as is her unwavering sense of social justice. This may be what allows her to be the leader she is and keep focus even under the attacks of naysaying politicians and journalists. She says: “I have Aspergers and that means I’m sometimes a bit different from the norm. And - given the right circumstances- being different is a superpower.” 💪🏾 🌍

Leonora Carrington (1918-2011) was a British-born Mexican artist, surrealist painter, and novelist. She lived most of her adult life in Mexico City and was one of the last surviving participants in the Surrealist movement of the 1930s. Carrington was also a founding member of the Women's Liberation Movement in Mexico during the 1970s.

Ajareaty Waiapi (aka Nazaré) is the chief of an indigenous village in the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest—an area which is home to 900,000 indigenous people (around 305 tribes) At 38 years old, Nazaré decided to learn Portuguese so she could “talk with the white men in meetings” and advocate for her land and people with the lawmakers of Brazil. Her commitment to learning at an older age (and in the face of some ridicule) earned her the honor of chief, a rare role for women, who don’t often get educations. Now at 58 years old, she is attending a high school geography class to better understand her people’s land as it relates to the rest of the world. She’s also encouraging all the Waiapi people (nearly 1500 people in 92 small villages) to go to school in order to protect their land, their rights to education and healthcare, and their traditional way of life, which are under threat by the current Brazilian government (whose leader has long resented the protection of indigenous land and has encouraged the deforestation of the Amazon.) Over 87,000 fires (most of them illegal) have started in the forest within the past year, a number that has nearly doubled since Bolsonaro took office.

The Amazon Rainforest is the is the world’s largest tropical rainforest, famed for its biodiverse ecosystem, home to countless species of plants and animals. It absorbs 20% of the planet’s carbon dioxide and helps regulate global rainfall patterns. It is one of the world’s greatest natural defenses against climate change.