Alexandria Villaseñor (born 2005) is an American
climate activist living in New York. A follower of the
Fridays for Future movement and of fellow climate activist
Greta Thunberg,[1] Villaseñor is a co-founder of U.S. Youth Climate Strike and the founder of Earth Uprising.[2]
Villaseñor's fight for climate action was sparked when she was caught in a smoke cloud from the November 2018
Camp Fire in
California, the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California's history, while visiting her hometown for Thanksgiving.[8][9] As an
asthma sufferer, she became physically ill, during which time she researched the
climate change and temperature rises which contributed to the fire's severity.[4] Her mother, Kristin Hogue, was enrolled in the M.A. in Climate and Society program at
Columbia University[4] and Villaseñor would occasionally attend class with her mother, where she learned about the underlying science of climate change.[10] Soon afterward, she joined New York's chapter of Zero Hour, a group of American youth climate activists.[4]
Villaseñor has taken similar climate action to Thunberg, who inspired her with her December 4, 2018 talk at the
United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24) in
Katowice, Poland. Since December 14, 2018 (while COP24 was still held),[4] she skips school every Friday in order to protest against lack of climate action in front of the
Headquarters of the United Nations in New York.[11][9][12] She is no longer involved with the US Youth Climate Strike group[13] and founded the
climate change education group Earth Uprising.[14]
When Thunberg arrived in New York City from her
transatlantic sailboat voyage in August 2019, Villaseñor,
Xiye Bastida, and other climate activists greeted Thunberg upon arrival.[15] By that time, they had already established contact with each other over
social media.[16]
In September 2019, she spoke at the
Global Citizen Festival in New York along with Bastida and Selina Neirok Leem.[17]
In May 2019, Villaseñor was the recipient of the Disruptor Award from the Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards (TDIA),[23] received a scholarship from The Common Good public advocacy organization,[24][25] and was awarded a Youth Climate Leadership prize from
Earth Day Network.[26]
On December 1, 2020, she was named by
Seventeen magazine as one of their 2020 Voices of the Year.[27]