preview

Teen Activists Research Paper

Good Essays
Open Document

Imagine this: you and your siblings are great musicians and you see children your age in Haiti, homeless. Or this: you have AIDS and everyone in your school is making fun of you. Or even worse: your neighbor’s dog is about to be decapitated by a drunk man. What would you do? I would probably tell someone, but the people who went through these events stood up for what they believed in. They used their talents and instincts to do such. The youth who do these kinds of things are called teen activists. They know what to do to tackle a terrible situation that they want to change. Most teen activists are determined to change the world, whether it be through music, books and tours, or putting their life on the line. One extraordinary way that teen …show more content…

This brings me to Paige Rawl, another extraordinary girl who was twelve at the start of her story and possibly twenty or twenty-one today. At the age of three, Paige was diagnosed as HIV-positive, which meant she had AIDS, a blood disease. Her parents were divorced and her father died of an AIDS-related disease. Paige thought she was taking medication because she had asthma, but when she heard AIDS and HIV come up in fifth grade, she put it together. Her mother, who was also HIV-positive, told Paige that she would explain what HIV was when Paige was older. Paige was ending elementary school at the time, so she did what most of us would do. Paige confided in her best friend at a sleepover. This friend does not seem like a good friend to me. In my opinion, that is. Why, you may ask? The fact that Paige was HIV-positive got around the school within two weeks. People were bullying Paige, calling her mean nicknames like PAIDS and leaving mean notes on her locker that said things like “No AIDS at this school” (USA Today). To make matters worse, Paige told USA Today, "She said we could use my HIV status to our advantage, that the players on the other team would be afraid to touch me and I could score goals" (USA Today). The worst part was that the school administrators did not bother to help. They just let her go through elementary and middle school with this problem sitting on her shoulders, hovering over her like a cloud. The bullying got to the point where Paige was homeschooled. Later on, Paige went to a different high school, one without the people who teased her in middle school. When she admitted her status as HIV-positive, nobody made fun of her. The students and administrators were supportive of Paige until the very end. In high school, Paige got to be a part of the I Need You to Listen, Hear, and Understand Me TOUR. Furthermore, Paige represented the USA in a movie called “It’s

Get Access
Related
Get Access