The first time I
stepped into a class-
room to teach, that’s
when I fell in love with
bat conservation and
sharing my passion
with others, and felt
in my heart that this is
how I want to make
a difference in
the world.BIOLOGIST RESEARCH-
ING AT-RISK BAT SPE-
CIES, WITH NATIONAL
GEOGRAPHIC SUPPORT
KRISTEN LEAR
‘THAT I
BELONG
TO MYSELF.’
Alicia Garza, a longtime advocate for workers’
and women’s rights, joined with two other women
to organize protests against police violence
around #BlackLivesMatter.
“My most recent breakthrough is that I belong
to myself. Sometimes when you’re in a position such
as this one, there are a lot of demands being placed
on you: your time, your energy, your heart space.
There are more requests for support, for whatever,
than you can reasonably engage. So in the process
of trying to prioritize, first and foremost you have to
prioritize yourself and what you need to be well.”I’ve been pretty
self-aware as to who I
am, but there are
definitely things that
happened, like the “We
call BS” speech when I
became nationally rec-
ognized, which was a
pretty big part of my life.
In ninth grade I started
questioning my sexual-
ity, and then I came out,
and that was a big part
of my life too. But I think
I’ve been pretty com-
fortable in my own skin
for a very long time.CO-FOUNDER OF THE
MARCH FOR OUR LIVES
MOVEMENT AND AN
ADVOCATE FOR
LGBTQ RIGHTS
EMMA
GONZÁLEZ
Î
INTERVIEWS HAVE BEEN EDITED FOR LENGTH AND CLARITY.PHOTOS: GILLIAN LAUB (BUSH); ERIKA LARSEN. ILLUSTRATIONS: LAUREN TAMAKI 97