EQUIPPING
SURVIVORS
AMANDA NGUYEN | 28
For survivors of sexual assault, pressing
charges can be a terrifying and confusing
process. In some states, survivors have
been billed for their rape exams, despite
a federal law intended to prevent that.
In others, those kits have been thrown
out after six months—well before many
survivors are ready to press charges.
Activist Amanda Nguyen learned this
the hard way. After she was raped in
her Harvard dorm room in 2013 and
forced to navigate what she calls a
“legal labyrinth” to seek justice, Nguyen
founded Rise, a nonprofit that seeks
to legally empower victims of sexual
assault. To date, it has helped pass over
25 state and federal laws codifying civil
rights—by requiring, for example, that
rape-kit procedures be made clear—for
more survivors of sexual violence. And
Nguyen, who was nominated for a 2019
Nobel Peace Prize, has sage advice for
other young people confronted with
injustice: “The most powerful tool we
have is our voice.” ÑAbby Vesoulis
CHAMPIONS OF
CONSERVATION
BINDI IRWIN | 21
ROBERT IRWIN | 15
Bindi and Robert Irwin were made
famous by tragedy. Their father, the
irrepressible conservationist Steve
Irwin, died in 2006 when a stingray
pierced his heart. The siblings—who
between them have 4.4 million Insta-
gram followers—have proselytized to
a whole new generation about the pro-
tection and preservation of wildlife.
Like their dad, they’re unsnobby. They
use social media, TV dancing, animal
visits on late-night comedy shows and,
since 2018, a new reality-TV series
about their lives to get people to do
what scientists often can’t: care about
the fate of the creatures with whom we
share the planet. ÑBelinda Luscombe
PUSHING LAWMAKERS LEFT
ALEXANDRA ROJAS | 24
As executive director of Justice Democrats,
Alexandra Rojas and her team recruit and
train primary challengers—often young,
working-class people of color—to unseat
less progressive incumbents. In 2018,
they helped elect what’s now known as
the Squad: Representatives Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib
and Ayanna Pressley. Now Rojas is working
to turn that momentum into more electoral
power by building a bench of young
progressives in Congress. So far, her
group has endorsed eight new candidates
running for congressional seats in 2020,
including 26-year-old immigration attorney
Jessica Cisneros, who has already raised
more than seven times Ocasio-Cortez’s
2017 total. ÑCharlotte Alter
PORTRAIT-ILLUSTRATION BY GLUEKIT FOR TIME; BAD BUNNY: STEFAN RUIZ; NGUYEN: PATRICK T. FALLON—BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES; ROJAS: JONATHAN BACHMAN—REUTERS
