‘The Child Stars At The End of The World’ – The Youth Climate Movement Phenomenon and What Comes Next

Denison University’s Laura C. Harris Series welcomes author Jamie Margolin presenting a lecture, “The Child Stars At The End of The World” – The Youth Climate Movement Phenomenon and What Comes Next. This presentation will review Margolin’s story, the growth of the youth climate movement, greenwashing and downsides, and where we go from here organizing for climate justice.

Margolin is a Colombian-American filmmaker, organizer, author, and student at NYU Tisch, Film & TV. Margolin founded Zero Hour, an international youth-led climate justice organization, in July 2018, to create entry points, training, and resources for young organizers wanting to take action on climate change. As executive director, she led Zero Hour in organizing youth climate marches in Washington D.C. and 25 cities around the world, federal lobby days in the House and Senate, the Youth Climate Summit in Miami, Florida, and testified in the House of Representatives with Greta Thunberg and Vic Barrett. Margolin is the author of the book, “Youth To Power: Your Voice and How To Use It,” which serves as a guide to organizing and activism and is a recipient of the 2020 Gold Medal Nautilus Book Award for young adult nonfiction.

Margolin served as a plaintiff on the Our Children’s Trust Youth v. Gov Washington state lawsuit, Aji P. vs. State of Washington, suing the state of Washington for denying her generation their constitutional rights to a livable environment by worsening the climate crisis. She served as a surrogate for the Bernie Sanders 2020 Presidential Campaign, speaking at several campaign rallies and filming campaign endorsement videos. Margolin has written thought-provoking Op-Eds for various publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME Magazine, DAZED, Refinery29, Teen Vogue, and The Guardian.

Margolin has directed, written, and starred in multiple films including, Art Majors (a 2021 web-pilot), and several shorts, La Anti-Romantica (2021), Growing Up At The End of The World (2021), and Just Fucking Leave Me Alone (2021) and an upcoming short on climate despair Doomers (2023). Margolin has created PELEA Animation, which is majority women of color and LGBTQ+ artists, to tell stories of people overcoming injustice and fighting for the world, and to create LGBTQ+ representation in media. The debut film, Pelea, will center the story of a community fighting to defend their homeland from fossil fuel extraction.