Each year, GOOD celebrates 100 people from around the globe who are improving our world in creative and innovative ways—advocates, inventors, educators, creatives, business leaders and more who are speaking up, building things, campaigning for change, and ultimately refusing to accept the status quo.
In this section, meet 12 advocates creating change to promote social, political, and economic justice.
Jane Marx’s Social Impact Comes Caffeinated
Melbourne
After founding Long Street Coffee last summer out of a converted garage in Melbourne, Jane Marxand her husband, Francois, turned their café into a platform for creating awareness of Australia’s severe restrictions on refugee rights, employing refugees and providing paid, six-month barista trainee-ships to asylum seekers.
LocoL Reimagines Fast Food
Los Angeles, San Francisco
Michelin-starred chef Daniel Patterson and Kogi food truck king Roy Choi bring affordable Korean-American fusion to neglected food deserts with fast-casual chain LocoL. Their “burgs” are beef patties cut with grains, seaweed, and tofu, though customers at the inaugural location in Los Angeles’s Watts neighborhood could barely tell the difference. Next, the pair will launch LocoL in San Francisco.
Ioane Teitiota Challenges Refugee Classifications
South Terawa
Rising sea levels threaten the existence of Ioane Teitiota’s home country of Kiribati—a low-lying island chain in the Pacific—so he sought refuge in New Zealand, campaigning to become the first climate change refugee. After a four-year legal battle, Teitiota was deported, but not before raising international awareness of Kiribati’s plight and the effect of climate change as its own form of persecution.
Li Tingting is China’s Fiercest Feminist
Beijing
Chinese performance artist Li Tingting—who has taken over male public restrooms and marched down Beijing streets wearing a blood-splattered wedding dress to protest gender and sexual inequality—spent 37 days in prison after her activist group, dubbed the “Feminist Five,” planned demonstrations for last year’s International Women’s Day. Since her release, Tingting has been studying law, aiming to become the first openly lesbian attorney in Chinese history.
Nafisa Kaptownwala Sees Beauty in Many Shades
Toronto
At just 27 years old, Nafisa Kaptownwala is the founder of Lorde Inc., the first modeling agency whose entire roster boasts models of color—many of whom were recruited off of Instagram and on the street. Though only launched in 2013, Lorde has already expanded from its London base to Toronto and New York City, knocking at mainstream fashion’s door to remind the industry that a big, wide world of diverse beauty exists out there.
Chris Mosier Sprints Toward Inclusivity
New York City
When Chris Mosier earned a spot on Team USA’s sprint duathlon squad for the 2016 World Championship, he became the first openly transgender athlete to make a U.S. national team aligned with his gender identity. As founder of TransAthlete.com and executive director of GO! Athletes, Mosier consults with sports leagues on trans inclusivity and creates bias response protocols informed in part by his personal experiences with discrimination. This year, Mosier saw another victory with the International Olympic Committee lifting its policy requiring that transgender athletes complete reassignment surgery in order to compete.
Rafael Strasser Brings People to the Table
Berlin
Rafael Strasser has your dinner plans covered. His initiative, Über den Tellerrand, combats prejudice by integrating migrants into the local communities of 20 German cities through cooking classes, recipe sharing, pop-up restaurants, and more.
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka Puts Women First
New York City
Before Emma Watson, there was Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. The United Nations Under-Secretary- General and Executive Director of UN Women is the mastermind behind the HeForShe campaign, which encourages men to be more proactive in achieving gender equality. Most recently, Mlambo-Ngcuka advocated for climate change solutions in the Paris Agreement that address the disproportionate impact environmental change has on women and girls.
Hari Nef Shatters the Mold
New York City
When Hari Nef signed to IMG Models last May, she became the first transgender model on the top agency’s U.S. roster. Since then, Nef has walked in New York Fashion Week, been featured in Vogue, and visited the White House as part of its Champions of Change event honoring LGBT artists. The Tumblr favorite has also jumped into writing and acting, appearing on the second season of Amazon’s Transparent.
Megan Smith Breaks Glass Ceilings
Washington, D.C.
In September 2014, President Obama named Megan Smith chief technical officer of the United States, making her the first woman to hold the post. A former Google executive and veteran of Silicon Valley, she helped found the Malala Fund in 2012 specifically for Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai’s work in girls’ education and empowerment, and serves on the board of Vital Voices, a nonprofit that works with women leaders in economics, politics, and human rights.
Jose Manuel Moller Fills a Forgotten Food Need
Santiago
Jose Manuel Moller’s company, Algramo, buys essential food goods in bulk to distribute affordably through vending machines on the outskirts of Chilean and Colombian cities, where local stores often charge up to 40 percent more than in central areas. The service is now expanding to Mexico.
Jody Wilson-Raybould Raises Her Voice for the Indigenous
Ottawa
Jody Wilson-Raybould was sworn in as Canada’s minister of justice and attorney general this past November, making her the first indigenous person to hold the office—not to mention the country’s first liberal minister of justice in a decade. One of her first actions in office was to establish a national framework to combat violence against indigenous women.
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Say hello to my little friend...literally.
TikTok shocked by 15-year-old unhinged viral clip of kids performing Scarface in school play
Think about the most outrageous film that could be adapted to the stage. Now, imagine the cast of that theatrical production is entirely children, ranging in age from 7 to 10. Now, film it and let the world react.
That’s what director Marc Klasfeld had in mind when he held auditions with professional child actors for a shocking video, meant to look like an elementary school production of the cult film-favorite Scarface. In a now 15-year-old interview with Entertainment Weekly, when asked why he thought this was a good idea, Klasfeld admits, "I thought this would be a nice fit into the kind of YouTube arena of viral videos. And I was right."
The result? Kids yelling “mother-fudger,” piles of popcorn meant to look like cocaine, and outrageous, lengthy scenes of children pointing Super Soakers at one another.
Marc, mostly known as an accomplished commercial and music video director, later adds, "I enjoy making provocative art. I like stirring debate and causing conversation. You're going to get two sides of the coin no matter what you do. People are going to love and hate everything. People loved and hated Avatar. People loved and hated the Jennifer Aniston movie. And people love and hate this. I guess that's a part of having something that's successful out there. There’s got to be certain people that hate it for people to love it."
Once they got their perfect cast, it didn’t take long to put together. He shares, "It was a one-take, so it was pretty much just choosing the right take. About a month altogether."
People sure did react, as it acquired millions of views and comments from all over the Internet. Some were horrified, some were outraged, and many thought it was the funniest thing they'd ever seen. But Marc emphasizes that the kids in the video were not scandalized. "They’ve heard the f-word. They’ve seen more violence in their everyday lives for as long as they can remember. So for this, they’ve seen worse things than this all the time. So this wasn’t that big of a deal for them."
Enter TikTok. The clip (which just popped up again recently on Facebook) was reposted a few years back, and, once again, the comments continue to run the gamut from indignation to full praise. One TikTok user exclaimed, "Bro, I can’t even remember my grocery list, how the fudge did these kids memorize this whole scene lol?"
Others expressed confusion: "I'm not sure whether to be angry or amazed." Some chose anger: "Just imagine, you know these kids watched the movie to get the characters right. And the parents cheering? Yeah, yeah."
Many commenters believed it was a real school play and commended the production for "keepin' it real": "That school keeps it real. Nowadays, kids know so much about guns and drugs, might as well teach them that bad choices don’t end well."
Yet another enjoyed it but was concerned that the parents of the children would not. "Love the tray full of popcorn. But my God, I would hate to see the hell these parents probably raised."
For the most part, the reviews were glowing. Many complimented the acting, and one claimed they definitely would have "preferred this play over their own school production of Macbeth."
And perhaps the biggest compliment? "Al Pacino will be proud."