Sophia Nelson: 'If youth can mobilize, that is how change is going to come'

With a major in film, media and a passion for environmental science, Sophia Nelson is interested in corporate social responsibility campaigns and how businesses can engage in sustainable and ethical practices.

Young filmmaker and producer Sophia Nelson said to Egypt Today from the social justice standpoint, she was in seventh grade when the Sandy Hook shooting happened in Connecticut. 

‘’I was scared as the teachers and the adults were around us, the students really turned to each other and we talked about what would happen if this happened to us.I think that same feeling of having comfort in peers and the numbers around you really translated into social justice work for me in high school and things like that. Realizing that in most cases, young people are the majority in the room as there is one teacher and 24 students so if we talk to each other and we understand each other and we will get over these little gaps in knowledge that we have and then we will have more power’’ Nelson said.  

Nelson said that in documentary making all these little stories are united in these little pockets of environmentalism to tell a very specific message and whatever that message is, it's those unifying numbers and understanding of one another that really creates the change.  

‘’I think film and media is the only digestible way to unite voices for climate change. Social media is an international platform and is accessible to anybody who has technology and internet.  Now, I've seen probably in the last four years since I started studying film and media that there's a plethora of information out there. TikTok has become a huge thing and although people use it for all different reasons, I've found a lot of people use it to advocate for the climate to even show off demonstrations or protests that they're doing for climate change’’ Nelson added.  
 
 

From Nelson point of view as long as young people have their cell phones, they can film anything.  

‘’We can film all the stories we want and that has never been the case before. Now we can choose topics that we want to document’’ Nelson explained. 

Nelson said that the creativity behind expressing the content of documentaries has also improved as we have like virtual reality now. ‘’ There is so many mediums of documentary and ways of expression now that I think visually they are more engaging and more diverse. We are now able to bridge these ideas between science, media, politics, national and international and community issues. And seeing those connections I think is inspiring. Knowing how the network is built and knowing where the resources. 

Commenting on the role of youth in climate issues Nelso said that she believes that power and numbers is everything. ‘’ If youth can mobilize, that is how change is going to come. If we can hold this momentum as a youth and keep going into our twenties, keep going into our thirties, keep pushing this ahead, we are not only paving a path for the people younger than us, but we're going to be able to create the real change we need’’ Nelson added. 

 
So I think youth action groups are able to see things from a new perspective or in other words clean perspective.  

‘’ I think we need to take a much more radical approach on how we're going to address environmentalism.  I do think youth can think outside the box and be unrestricted by the history and the negativity of the past. I think your bubble is so small as a youth, and that is powerful because it's a microcosm for all that's happening in the world, if they can see that even for a second, people listen to them or give them money to support the ideas they have, that is something they can bring into their careers ahead of them, so I think youth inspiration is essential for tackling any future environmentalism issues’’ Nelson added. 

Nelson message to the international community is to take a second and listen. ‘’ Connect and listen, empathize, understand and immerse yourselves in community and I think that is absolutely essential to understand or reconcile an international solution’’ Nelson said.