Don't Wait: Three Girls Who Fought for Change and Won

You don’t have to be an adult to fight for what you believe in — and win.

The remarkable stories of 3 young women activists of color fighting for some of today’s most pressing movements of defunding the police, environmental justice, and arts education.

Girls of color have always been on the front lines of the fight for equal rights—to vote, to learn, to live—even when they are the last to benefit from the outcomes of their work. In Don’t Wait, journalist Sonali Kohli follows 3 teens navigating the complexities of growing up while working to make their communities safer, healthier places.

-Nalleli lives across the street from an active oil well in South Los Angeles. She and her mother take on an oil company and become environmental justice activists.

-Kahlila, following the murder of George Floyd and looking to help fight back, becomes involved with the Black Lives Matter movement in Los Angeles and fights to defund school police in one of the largest school police forces in the nation.

-Sonia, an accomplished singer grappling with finding a creative outlet in the pandemic, strives to increase access to arts education in schools across California.

Don’t Wait highlights what propelled the young women into their activism, to their experiences organizing, and incorporates Q&As with important lessons from activists who have led the way. Tracing their journeys from teens to adults, Don’t Wait reflects on the powerful lessons they’ve learned in their activism while building movements in their communities that will continue to live on as they move forward.

Sonali Kohli is a journalist writing about young people and the futures they are creating. Kohli was an education reporter for the Los Angeles Times for 6 years with a passion for covering youth movements, and in 2020, was named the top education journalist in the nation by the Education Writers Association. She is currently a recruiter at URL Media, where she works with underrepresented folks in journalism and media to find jobs and workplaces that will treat them well. Follow her on her website (sonalikohli.com) and Twitter (Sonali_Kohli).