While us adults are busy talking, the following 10 kids are taking action. They'll be among the likely millions of people of gathering for tomorrow's Global Climate Strikes, a youth-led event that invites adults to leave work and join in too. (Kids in New York City public schools don't even need to worry about missing anything important; they now have official permission to play hooky.) It's hard not to feel inspired by what they've already been able to accomplish. The future is in good hands.

Bastida's family was forced to move to New York when her hometown in Mexico flooded, and the 17-year-old now leads protests outside the U.N. nearly every Friday through the #FridaysForFuture program. Like Thunberg, she also travels the country speaking at major events (they'll both be addressing the U.N. this weekend) about the importance of widespread climate action because, as she puts it, "Taking care of the Earth shouldn't be a movement; it should be part of our culture."

Who says high school science fairs can't save the world? While some experts are saying that it's impossible to extract the millions and millions (and millions) of tiny microplastic particles polluting our oceans, 18-year-old Ferreira created what is essentially a magnet for the plastics, which was 87% effective at attracting them during testing. The invention won the Irish high school student this year's Google Science Fair, and he's using the $50,000 prize money to start deploying it in real life.

Growing up in Bali, Bencheghib was heartbroken to see the local beaches increasingly clogged with plastic debris. At 12 years old, he started hosting beach cleanups with his siblings but quickly realized that the trash just kept coming back. That's when he took his activism up a notch by doing extreme stunts to call attention to the plastic pollution crisis. He's paddled down one of the most polluted rivers in the world on a kayak made out of plastic bottles, stand-up paddleboarded through the Gowanus Canal superfund site, and now he's literally running across the country—from the Atlantic to the Pacific—hosting talks, cleanups, and documentary screenings along the way. His guiding principle is, "If we want to see big change, we need to take on big challenges."

Margolin is the founder of Zero Hour, a wildly popular platform for young activists that hosts marches, strikes, and summits around the U.S. Over the past two years, Margolin has organized climate rallies in Washington, D.C., testified before Congress, and hosted a Youth Climate Summit in Miami, where speakers included Bill McKibben and former U.S. EPA administrator Gina McCarthy. Her to-do list this year includes finishing the manuscript for her upcoming book and publishing an op-ed in the New York Times—as if applying to colleges wasn't stressful enough.

Namugerwa is an important voice in Uganda's climate movement, and she's asked the United Nations to ban plastic bags in her home country. Inspired by Thunberg, Namugerwa also leaves school to strike for climate change every Friday. "Friday used to be ordinary, but now it is the busiest day of the week," she explains. "I wake up, carry my placard, and stand on the roadside or wherever I deem suitable to communicate my message. I sit when I get tired of standing while encouraging people to read my message." She adds that while she was initially teased for her end-of-week ritual, a number of peers are now joining in, which gives her hope for the future.

Villasenor is another activist who takes to her post on the sidewalk every Friday. She's based in New York City and heads to a bench outside the U.N. headquarters, rain, shine, or snow, holding signs like "school strike 4 climate" and "COP24 failed us." You can bet she'll be out again this Friday, when thousands of New Yorkers will likely join in to amplify her message.