A West Vancouver teen has been named one of the top influential women in Canada for her strides in climate advocacy and education.
Grade 11 Mulgrave School student Lily YangLiu is a recipient of the Top 25 Women of Influence+ Award by Women of Influence+, an international organization that advocates for gender equity in the workplace.
“I am absolutely in shock,” YangLiu said. “It was very surreal, and I’m very honoured and touched by all the support my community has given me.”
YangLiu has a portfolio of achievements from leading initiatives for Mulgrave School’s environmental and sustainability council and developing an international baccalaureate pilot program at four schools worldwide to being a United Nations delegate and participating in global conferences like COP29 as a youth climate negotiator.
On top of that, the 16-year-old is also the youngest recipient in the award’s history to be nominated.
YangLiu noticed the effects of climate change at a young age. She grew up in Beijing, China, breathing in air pollution constantly. Over time, the smog led her to be hospitalized and she now lives with asthma.
But the experience sparked the student to launch Daily Climate News, making educational posts about the environment on social media.
“I do it mainly on Chinese social media because when I was growing up in China, I found that there was very little coverage of the climate, and I wanted to change that,” she said, adding that most climate research is published predominantly in English, making it vital to have it in Mandarin.
One of YangLiu’s mentors from youth climate advocacy organization CoalitionWILD nominated her for the award. The nomination came as a total surprise, as she checked her email before going on a run one morning and saw the news she was listed.
“I’m so grateful for the recognition. It reminds me that there’s people looking at me and following my work, and that just inspires me to keep going on,” she said. “I know there’s so many people that understand how crucial climate literacy and youth empowerment is and it just motivates me to keep fighting for what I believe in.”
YangLiu said she is inspired by many people around her, especially her mom, whose name she bears. In Asian cultures, children typically take their father’s last name but YangLiu said her mom believed that her name carried equal weight. That lead to two last names – Yang from her dad and Liu from her mom.
“That’s been really instilled with me since I was a kid to fight for what I believe in, to fight for equal rights, to fight for change I want to see in the world,” YangLiu said. “My mom inspires me every day and my dad is also awesome.”
But, she added, she can’t forget others who have motivated her, including other activists as well as teachers and classmates from Mulgrave School.
As Earth Week approaches at her school, the teen is already busy working on initiatives with the student body including organizing a climate leader speaker series, exploring careers in the environmental space, holding a vegan bake sale and participating in a Green Shirt Day fundraiser.
YangLiu and the other recipients will celebrate in Toronto on April 8 during the Women of Influence+ annual luncheon.
Abby Luciano is the Indigenous and civic affairs reporter for the North Shore News. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
https://bsky.app/profile/abbyluciano.bsky.social
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