Bye Bye Plastic Bags founders Melati and Isabel Wijsen launched one of Asia’s most impactful environmental movements before they were teenagers. With their new project Youthtopia, they’re teaching other young activists how to follow suit
Melati and Isabel Wijsen launched activism group Bye Bye Plastic Bags when they were just 10 and 12 years old. Over six years, their continued protesting and education efforts eventually resulted in the official ban of plastic bags, styrofoam and plastic straws on their home island of Bali, Indonesia, showing the world the power of young people to stand up and enact change.
But the ban on plastic wasn’t the end of the sisters’ careers in advocacy. The duo explained that over the years, they met countless young people who also wanted to make a change, but didn’t know how. “We always got the same two questions no matter where in the world we were, and that was: ‘How can I do what you do?’ and ‘How can I be part of a larger movement?’” Melati says.
“That was never an easy question to answer,” she adds. The sisters realised their experiences over the past seven years gave them the unique ability to help other young activists develop the skills and tools they need to make a difference, be it training young people public speaking skills or teaching them how to lobby for policy change.
“We knew that there was a larger passion that was growing for us, and that was youth empowerment through peer-to-peer learning,” Melati says. In 2020 they launched Youthtopia, which the sisters describe as the headquarters for young changemakers around the world.
Here, we talk to the Wijsen sisters about their vision for the future of Youthtopia, the importance of alternative education and how they are helping young people find their “how”.