TCAGI began with a straightforward, but audacious, idea: how to help children understand climate change without scaring them with it. Sophie’s own experience of eco-anxiety as a child inspired the organization’s first major project, a series of children’s books aimed at introducing the climate crisis to young readers while emphasizing hope, teamwork and practical action.
The 18-year-old California student has turned an online community started during the Covid pandemic into The Clean & Green Initiative (TCAGI), a youth-led environmental nonprofit with more than 700 members in more than 30 countries. The work has now garnered national recognition, including a spot on the 2026 recipients of the Barron Prize for Young Heroes and a $10,000 national young hero prize, the National Society of High School Scholars website report states. For many young people, the climate crisis did not come as a distant scientific issue but as something deeply personal. Wildfires, extreme weather and an uncertain future could make an already complex world feel even more overwhelming. For Sophie Kim, that anxiety became the impetus to build a community, rather than retreat from the problem. TCAGI began with a straightforward, but audacious, idea: how to help children understand climate change without scaring them with it. Sophie’s own experience of eco-anxiety as a child inspired the organization’s first major project, a series of children’s books aimed at introducing the climate crisis to young readers while emphasizing hope, teamwork and practical action. The first book, Stella and the Starlight Solution, is about Stella the Star visiting Earth and learning her friend is in trouble.
Her ever-expanding work has earned her a spot as one of the 2026 Barron Prize Young Heroes, an award recognizing young people for their initiative and impact in their communities. Sophie is more than an environmental activist. She started the Bipartisan Bridges program, which brings together high school students for structured debates on social topics. For Sophie, the journey that began with eco-anxiety has transformed into something much larger, a network where young people can learn, create and take action together. As she prepares to continue her environmental work in college, TCAGI’s story gives us a glimpse into what can happen when fear becomes the spark for building something constructive.