When Melati Wijsen was just 12 years old, she and her sister launched Bye Bye Plastic Bags, a campaign to ban plastic bags in Bali. What started as a concern about their island home launched Melati into a lifetime of changemaking.
Today, Melati is the founder of YOUTHTOPIA and the author of Change Starts Now. Through YOUTHTOPIA, she’s helping young changemakers around the world find the tools, mentorship, and community they need to turn their ideas into action.
In partnership with GivingTuesday, YOUTHTOPIA is also bringing young people together through a Generosity Masterclass, exploring how generosity extends beyond money to include our time, skills, knowledge, and connections. With GivingTuesday coming up on December 1, the Masterclass gives young changemakers a chance to explore new ways to practice generosity and discover how they can show up for their communities through the time, skills, knowledge, and connections they already have.
We spoke with Melati about supporting young changemakers, making generosity part of everyday life, and why sometimes the most important thing you can do is simply start.
Q&A with Melati Wijsen, Founder of YOUTHTOPIA and Author of Change Starts Now
Q: You started your changemaking journey at just 12 years old. What first inspired you to get involved?
I grew up on the island of Bali, where I was surrounded by nature and a community that taught me from a young age that we all have a role to play in taking care of the places and people around us. My journey as a changemaker began when I was just 12 years old, when my sister and I started a campaign to ban plastic bags in Bali. We called our project Bye Bye Plastic Bags, the mission clear in its name. Nature was our biggest inspiration; we loved our island home, and we got involved because we didn’t want to see Bali drowning in plastic anymore.
That experience taught me that young people don’t have to wait until they are older to create change. Sometimes, all it takes is one person caring enough to take the first step and inviting others to join.
Q: Tell us about YOUTHTOPIA. What inspired you to start it, and what do young people need most to turn their ideas into action?
After years of working alongside young changemakers around the world, I kept seeing the same thing: young people have incredible ideas, passion, and courage, but many don’t have access to the tools, networks, mentorship, or resources they need to turn those ideas into action.
YOUTHTOPIA was created to help bridge that gap. We wanted to build a space where young people can learn from one another, connect across borders, and develop the skills and confidence to create meaningful change. At its heart, YOUTHTOPIA is about creating a community where young people don’t have to walk their changemaking journey alone. We’re a peer-to-peer learning community, sharing best practices and opportunities with one another.
In my opinion, young people need to believe that their ideas are worth acting on, but belief alone isn’t enough. They also need practical tools, supportive communities, mentors who can guide them, and opportunities to experiment and learn from failure.
Most importantly, they need people who are willing to take them seriously. When young people are given trust, space, and the right resources, they can accomplish incredible things. I’m a big believer that change can, and should, start in the classroom. The time spent at school should reflect the kind of safe environment young people need to thrive.
Q: YOUTHTOPIA partnered with GivingTuesday to create a Generosity Masterclass. What excited you about this experience, and what do you hope young people take away from it?
What excited me most was the opportunity to look at generosity at scale and offer a new perspective on what it can mean. At first, we tend to associate generosity with supporting others through funds, and for young people, that can be a barrier, since they may not have much money to give. So we were excited to team up with GivingTuesday to help expand the way we approach generosity. Generosity can be our time, knowledge, attention, skills, opportunities, or even simply opening a door for someone else.
For young changemakers, this is especially powerful because many of them are already giving so much to their communities. The YOUTHTOPIA Masterclass gives us a chance to reflect on how we can make that generosity more intentional, sustainable, and impactful. I know it will be such a valuable addition to students’ learning journeys around the world.
I hope they leave understanding that they don’t have to wait until they have more money, more experience, or more influence to be generous.
Everyone has something they can give. It could be an hour of their time, a skill they can teach, a connection they can make, or a platform they can use to amplify someone else’s voice.
I hope the YOUTHTOPIA Masterclass on Generosity helps young people see generosity as a mindset and a daily practice rather than a one-time act.
Q: What does a more generous world look like to you, and how can young people help create it in their everyday lives?
A more generous world is one where we actively look beyond ourselves and ask, “What can I contribute?” rather than only asking, “What can I get?”
Young people can create this world through everyday choices: sharing knowledge, supporting a friend’s idea, volunteering their time, including people who might otherwise be left out, or using their voice to amplify an important cause.
Generosity doesn’t always have to be big or visible. Often, it is the small things we consistently do for one another that create a culture of care.
Q: The YOUTHTOPIA community is being invited to lead a generous initiative of its own this GivingTuesday, on December 1. What are you excited to see, and what makes a shared moment of action like this meaningful?
I’m excited to see what the community comes up with because generosity looks different in every place and community.
I hope our members take this as an opportunity to think about what their own communities need and design something meaningful around that. It could be a small act of kindness, sharing a skill, supporting a local organization, creating a space for people to connect, or mobilizing others around a cause they care about.
There doesn’t need to be one definition of what a GivingTuesday initiative should look like. I would love to see young people make it their own. From our headquarters in Indonesia, you can expect to see a lot of celebrating and hyping up those on the frontlines, with more to come soon.
There is something powerful about knowing that, on the same day, people around the world are choosing to give and contribute in their own ways.
For a global community like YOUTHTOPIA, it creates a sense of connection. Even though our members may live in completely different countries and face very different challenges, they can still come together around a shared value: generosity.
It reminds us that change doesn’t have to happen alone. Collective action can start with many small individual actions, and that’s what we look forward to celebrating during this year’s GivingTuesday.
Q: What would you say to a young person who has an idea for making a difference but isn’t sure where to start?
Start small, but just start.
You don’t need to have the entire plan figured out before you begin. Start by talking to someone, learning more about the problem, or taking one small action that feels possible today.
And don’t be afraid to ask for help, or to ask “silly” questions. Some of the most meaningful things I’ve been able to do started because I reached out to someone and invited them to be part of the journey. Grow your team.
Your first step doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to happen. The rest is part of the journey to becoming a changemaker.
Q: For a YOUTHTOPIA member who wants to take part in the GivingTuesday Challenge, what’s one small first step they could take today?
Think of one thing you have that someone else could benefit from: your time, your knowledge, your skills, your network, or simply your attention.
Then give it.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. Send someone a helpful resource, offer to teach a skill, support a friend’s project, volunteer for an hour, or introduce two people who could help each other.
Start with what you have, where you are, and make one small act of generosity today. You never know where that first step might lead. And then share it. When we share stories of how we’ve taken generous action, it might inspire the next person to keep it going.
