Michelle Dagnino

Michelle Dagnino

I wanted to write about Michelle because I heard her speak at a conference and she has inspired me to be a better person. Michelle Dagnino is a youth activist, writer, and speaker, who works with young people to help them reach their full potential. She believes that youth have the energy and motivation to create lasting and effective change in the world.

Michelle has a long history as a youth activist. Although she was always a volunteer, she began to stand out as a leader when she was still in high school when she founded Aspire, a youth mentorship group for young women that brought women of all occupations and backgrounds to speak to youth about what inspired them to succeed. The group attracted a diversity of women, including the late author Carol Shields.

Since then, Michelle has continued to seek out creative ways to fulfill the needs of her community. She is the Executive Director of the national for youth, by youth charitable organization, Youth Action Network, a social-justice group that works with youth across Canada to create projects in their community that promote activism and lasting change.

Her most recent work is building on her years as a media activist, in which she has founded youthactivism.ca, a project that spotlights all the great things that young people around the world are doing by giving them a forum to discuss and highlight their work. Her work on hip hop feminism has resulted in her soon-to-be published book about how to use hip hop as a tool of critical thought and social consciousness. This grew out of her project, "Where is the Love," in which she speaks to young people in cities across Canada about media literacy, using hip hop videos and lyrics to discuss issues like discrimination against women, materialism, and activism.

I wanted to write about Michelle because when I heard her speak she helped me realize all the little things that we can be doing everyday to make our society a better place. Because she is trying to make the world a better place for others, and because she has inspired me to do the same thing, Michelle Dagnino is my hero.