marieclaire.com.au (^) | 83
The
FUTURE SHAPERS
At 15, Jean Hinchliffe is a force to be reckoned with.
Last November she organised Australia’s School Strike
4 Climate Action, where 15,000 students walked
out of school to attend rallies around the country –
directly ignoring Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s
remarks for kids to be “less activist”. Wearing her
trademark “Stop Adani” earrings, Hinchliffe says
she felt “ecstatic” marching with her peers.
“It was so inspiring to see so many kids with
posters, taking time off school and risking suspension,
because they cared about the issue of climate change,”
says Hinchliffe. “Oh man, it gave me hope.”
It wasn’t one moment that sparked Hinchliffe’s
activist streak, it was the constant news of ice caps
melting, the Great Barrier Reef dying, bushfires,
floods and pollution. In the face of such an enormous
crisis, people power is what keeps Hinchliffe going.
“Standing up for what you believe in and having
a voice can make such an enormous change,” says
Hinchliffe, whose life motto is ‘Go big or go home.’
At seven, Macinley Butson (far left, sitting) was obsessed
with sunglasses, so much so that when her mum refused
to buy her an 11th pair, she invented her own. It was the
first of many inventions. From her parents’ garage in
NSW’s Wollongong, Butson, now 18, has unveiled an
assembly line of life-saving devices, from a pesticide-free
snail repellent to protect her family pup, to a solar-power
system that filters dirty water to make it drinkable.
Eight years after her first foray into sunglass design,
a conversation over the dinner table drove Butson to
solve a much bigger problem. “When Dad [who works
in the radiation field] explained the problematic effect
radiotherapy treatment can have on breast cancer
patients, I knew I needed to help,” recalls Butson, who
invented ‘SMART Armour’ to protect patients from
excess radiation. After extensive testing, the SMART
Armour has been approved by the Therapeutic Goods
Administration for practice and Butson, now studying
a Bachelor of Science, is campaigning to find a
hospital to undertake a pilot study.
WINNER: 62? :?49=:R6, Student activist
WINNER: Macinley Butson, Inventor
“STANDING UP
FOR WHAT YOU
BELIEVE IN AND
HAVING A VOICE
CAN MAKE SUCH
AN ENORMOUS
CHANGE”
#@ZVc>^cX]a^çZ
The award for next-gen thought leaders ended in a tie
between Jean Hinchliffe (right) and Macinley Butson
sharon
(sharon)
#1