Mari Copeny

Amariyanna "Mari" Copeny — Little Miss Flint — was eight years old when she wrote a letter to President Obama about the Flint water crisis and he wrote back, then came to Flint. Her advocacy for clean water in her hometown has continued for over a decade, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars, distributing water filters and bottled water, and keeping national attention on a crisis that many Americans forgot about long before it was resolved.

Born in Flint, Michigan, in 2007, Copeny became aware of the water crisis when she was seven and her community's water turned brown. Lead-contaminated water was poisoning Flint's residents — disproportionately Black and low-income — after the city switched its water supply to save money. Officials denied the problem for months while children were being exposed to dangerous lead levels.

Copeny's letter to Obama in 2016 made her a national figure, but she didn't stop there. She has raised over $500,000 for clean water initiatives, partnered with companies to distribute water filters, testified before Congress, and launched a bottled water brand whose proceeds fund clean water projects. She was named one of Time's 25 Most Influential Teens. Her activism demonstrates that the most powerful voices for justice sometimes come from the people most directly affected — even when those people are children.