Rosalinde Leijdekker

Hello! My name is Rosalinde Leijdekker and I’m a 15-year-old secondary school upper form student. I have played soccer since I was nine years old, and I’m really passionate about it. There’s only one thing that I love more than soccer and that’s writing. At the age of seven I already wrote short stories about unicorns and princesses. Now, I prefer to write about things that I’m interested in, such as climate change. I even wrote a letter to the prime-minister, Rutte, about my worries regarding climate change and all its consequences. That letter literally changed my life completely, from one day to the next. All sorts of media platforms wanted to talk to me, conduct interviews with me, and it was quite a lot to. TED reached out to me as well, and I couldn’t say no. I’m going to talk about climate change, an annoying cliché for some and a really important subject for others. Nonetheless, climate change will eventually define all of our futures. Most youngsters from my generation don’t have a say on their future. I can attend climate strikes, however, I cannot vote. After such strikes it’s back to business as usual, so, what else can I do? Exactly, write a letter to the prime-minister.