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

Follows the stories of three 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 three teenagers’ efforts to make their communities safer, healthier places.

Don’t Wait highlightswhat propelled the teenagers into their activism to their experiences organizing and incorporates Q&As with important lessons from activists who have led the way.

The three teen activists include:

- Nalleli has lived across the street from an active oil well in South Los Angeles and at age 7, developed serious health problems. Nalleli 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 an creative outlet in the pandemic, strives to increase access to arts education in schools across California.

As the young women transition from teen to adult activists, 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 six 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 the editor for Cal Matters’ College Journalism Network, where she edits and mentors student journalists reporting on the largest public university system in the country. Follow her on her website (sonalikohli.com) and Twitter (Sonali_Kohli).