Today we’d like to introduce you to Ari Grace.
Hi Ari, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I always wanted to make a change in the world. In elementary school I may or may not have started a campaign called “Save The Swings” that included researching playground regulations, writing letters to my school administrators, making and distributing leaflets and posters, and chanting at the poor construction workers who were just trying to do their job. As far as climate activism goes, when I was 15 I learned through social media about Greta Thunberg. I feel like that’s a pretty generic and common start to the story, but I also think it really shows just how much one person can impact the entire world. I immediately started researching the climate crisis; I knew that global warming existed, but oh dear I did NOT know how bad things were getting. I started researching how Greta began her protest and decided to start my own. My first protest was a walkout at my high school. It was 5 minutes long and consisted of me and four other people. In the following weeks, I decided to take my protest to the state capitol and found that a girl named Raquel had been striking up there alone for a few weeks already. We then joined forces and created what is now our state’s sect of Fridays For Future. We stood at the capitol for up to 6 hours a day every Friday, sometimes alone, sometimes joined by others. I think our coldest day was below 0 F and our hottest was 111 F.
Slowly, the movement grew, due mainly to our social media accounts and the help of environmental organizations in the city that took notice of our strikes. We began preparing for the 2019 September 20th global strike. It took months and at least 40+ hours a week of work for me (on top of full-time high school) but it was SO worth it. We had a turnout of over 2,000 people that day. That was also the day I got to live my 15 minutes of fame. Live TV, live radio, multiple speeches in front of thousands… it was extremely scary and extremely cool. Unfortunately, things started getting harder from there. A small while after that global strike, at age 16 now, I landed in the hospital due to a severe eating disorder. I ended up staying for three months, being released in early 2020. I was so excited to get back into activism. The winter had decreased our numbers at strike so much, I wanted to get things back up and running again just like before. Then, you guessed it, Covid hit. Strike has never been the same since, but there are still so many beautiful and kind and passionate, hardworking people working with Fridays For Future and with other orgs in our area fighting for environmental justice. I’ve taken a step back, opting for more of a participant role as opposed to an organizing role. Mainly for mental health reasons, but I also just graduated EMT school and am studying for my national exam. I’ve also tried to get involved intersectionally with a lot of different causes, most recently women’s rights and trans rights, so I have to spread out my energy among causes.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It has in no way been easy. The first roadblock was that my parents wouldn’t even let me protest. I was 15 and a sophomore in high school, and the idea of me skipping class once a week to protest something they didn’t even believe in wasn’t very popular. I told them I’d learn how to use the bus and train system then if they wouldn’t take me. They ended up taking me because the bus stations are sketchy here. I’ve received a lot of hate. I think it was really bad for me mentally when I was younger. Every morning I would wake up to hundreds of notifications from social media. Most of them were good, but there were always people hating, spreading negativity, bullying me or others, etc. I took it to heart a lot, I argued, I replied. I engaged, and I let it get to me. I’ve got a few death threats lately, so that’s been interesting. I don’t let it get to me anymore though, I make very frequent use of the mute and block buttons.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Well, I’m 19 and currently unemployed because of school so I’m not sure exactly how to answer this haha because I’ve said most of what there is to say about climate activism.
Something that is cool is that I have a YouTube channel that I really care about. I’ve always wanted to be a content creator as a full-time job. Growing up I didn’t have a lot of friends and watching certain YouTubers made me feel a lot less alone. I try to make positive content, whether it’s about outfits or climate, or traveling… I just want people to watch my videos and feel like it’s a break from the real world, and like they have a friend available whenever they need it. I don’t make any money from it now, and because of school my upload schedule has been interrupted, but I can’t wait to get back to making videos and someday maybe make a career of it.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
Honestly, I feel like my entire life had been a bunch of bad luck. That may sound dramatic to say, and it probably is, but I’ve been through a lot. I’ve been told by multiple mental health and crisis workers “you’ve been through more at age 18/19 than most people will ever go through in their lives.” Some of my issues were definitely self-induced lol, but most of them were just consequences of the world we live in or of other people’s actions. I like to think there are definitely moments when the universe aligns something in my favor, especially when it comes to environmental activism, but most of what I’ve achieved has been through a hell of a lot of hard work and a bit of blood and tears.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.youtube.com/c/AriGraceYT
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsarigrace/?hl=en
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/itsarigrace
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/AriGraceYT
