Engaging Youth in Climate Action through Social Media

During Climate Week NYC, a panel comprising a TikTok comedian, an actress, a Latin cuisine entrepreneur, and a cooking content creator discussed how to effectively communicate about hunger and climate issues to younger audiences on social media. The event underscored the role of influencers in mobilizing youth for climate action.

A lively discussion broke out backstage during Climate Week NYC between a TikTok comedian, a buzzed-about actress, a Latin cuisine entrepreneur, and a cooking content creator.

Convened by World Food Programme USA to educate the panel's audiences — over 1.8 million Instagram followers combined — about hunger, the four weighed best practices for authentically breaking down weighty topics on social media.

"I want to force myself to be more active on TikTok," said " Avatar: The Way of Water" star Bailey Bass. Users "have a thought, and they are talking on their phone, and they post it. It feels very palpable." "But how do you know this is true?" asked Manolo Gonzalez Vergara, who co-founded the culinary brand Toma with his mother and actress Sofia Vergara. ''This is just a person talking." "But it's someone you can relate with, so there's a level of trust," added Drea Okeke, a Nigerian-American engineer turned social media star with over 6 million TikTok followers.

The exchange underscored the questions faced by the humanitarian establishment as they try to reach younger, more environmentally conscious generations who — they routinely acknowledged throughout the many events unfolding this week alongside the United Nations General Assembly in New York — are tasked with digging the world out of the hole left by years of climate inaction.

(With inputs from agencies.)