New Trier High School sophomore Scarlett Harper has accomplished a life’s amount of hard work and dedication in just four short years. After passing the “Bee Bill,” officially known as Illinois HB 3118, at the age of 12; attending the 2024 Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago at 14; and conducting climate research during her study abroad in Switzerland this past semester, the young activist is nothing short of motivated. 

Playing in the garden and spending time exploring the outdoors, Scarlett, even as a young child, quickly found her purpose. She took nothing for granted, wanting to give back to her planet in any way that she could. Although she was only 9, Scarlett’s strong voice and big ideas exceeded many adults’. She was more than ready to take action when she noticed the increasing climate problems around her. 

“Scarlett started showing interest in basically all things environmental when she was really little, maybe four years old. [She] would just spend all day long out in our garden, literally digging in the mud and examining worms and bugs,” Scarlett’s mother, Lauren Harper, recalls. 

Being extremely observant and proactive, Scarlett began to realize that the bee population was quickly decreasing in her own backyard. The young activist took it into her own hands to investigate. Understanding how each aspect of the environment plays its own crucial role in the climate, she began to combine her love for nature with her growing interest in the political world. 

“One of the big [causes] were the pesticides that are used to kill mosquitoes because they are super toxic to bees, other insects, wildlife, and in some cases, even correlated with things like ADHD in kids,” Scarlett says, regarding her motivation for her first major climate project: the ‘Bee Bill.’

One of Scarlett’s biggest concerns was that the pesticides were widely unregulated. She quickly jumped to action, contacting Illinois State Rep. Robyn Gabel who was more than happy to work with Scarlett. Together, they began drafting a piece of legislation that would limit what landscaping companies could do with the pesticides. 

“We spoke to some experts and decided that the best option would be to require landscaping companies to make sure that there is a mosquito problem before they spray, because a lot of times they just have a subscription [and spray regularly],” Scarlett says. “They would have to spray them under certain wind speeds so that they wouldn’t spread too much, and they would have to be trained to spray appropriately.”

After beginning to work on the bill during the COVID-19 pandemic in the fall of 2020, her commitment and effort began to pay off, with her bill traveling through the state legislature and becoming a big conversation among climate workers. Despite its growth, the progress wasn’t all smooth sailing. The bill received its fair share of opposition due to its interference with the work of landscaping companies. Nonetheless, Scarlett continued to advocate for the bees. 

“The thing that maybe impressed me the most was when she was ten years old and at the beginning of this process, she testified in front of the entire Illinois Senate,” Lauren says. “That was after she had cold called pretty much everybody in the [Illinois] House and everybody in the [Illinois] Senate to lobby for their support.”

With the sponsors and research to support her bill, it was signed into law by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on March 4, 2022. However, her work didn’t stop there. Scarlett continued to be a strong voice in a political world full of adults, attending the DNC in Chicago from Aug. 19-22 this past year. 

“I really wanted to be able to represent young people there,” Scarlett says. “Young people have such a vested interest in climate issues, and so it’s important to us that we have a voice.”

Scarlett was pleasantly surprised by how many politicians were willing to talk to her about the climate crisis. While she wasn’t sure how open they would be to speaking with someone so young, she quickly took initiative by conducting many interviews with politicians from around the world heavily involved in the environment.

“I got to talk to the former Prime Minister of New Zealand, [Jacinda Ardern], who did a lot of work during COVID to really help New Zealand have a lot fewer [climate] problems,” Scarlett recalls. “She talked a lot about how individuals need to make changes in their lives, and how widespread individual changes will be what it takes to make big changes in the climate crisis.”  

Although most of Scarlett’s work has been conducted here in the U.S., she recently expanded her horizons by traveling abroad to Switzerland for her first semester of sophomore year. Throughout her stay, she conducted labs and collected research while studying in the mountains. 

“We took a geology class where we would do our labs out in the mountains around us and look at glacial patterns,” Scarlett says. “In the last maybe 30 years, [the glaciers] have reduced a ton. There are glaciers that used to be one glacier that are now five because the middle of them has melted so much.” 

After returning to the North Shore over winter break, Scarlett’s plans for the future continue to grow. She is currently working to attend future Illinois legislative sessions and partner with new representatives, forming new relationships and crafting more change in the process. 

“I just want to try to keep bringing the perspective of science and environmental activism to the political world,” Scarlett emphasizes. 

What will really push her forward is her determination. Although Scarlett is a regular full-time student and competes on the track team at New Trier, she is constantly working on her climate goals as well.

“She’s doggedly determined if she sets herself a goal,” Lauren adds. “I don’t think I’ve ever known anybody who can just set a path and get that goal accomplished. So, the determination, I think, is what sets her apart from what most kids do.”

Even though Scarlett’s abilities and voice are rapidly growing in the public eye, she continues to return to her roots and looks up to the leaders above her. Scarlett has always been inspired by proactiveness and bold actions: as a young girl, she looked up to then-teen environmental activist Greta Thunberg for her strong voice in the climate conversation. A Nobel Peace Prize nominee in both 2019 and 2020, Thunberg initially gained attention in 2018 for her school strikes, “Fridays for Future,” prompting other leaders and students to speak out about the climate crisis. 

“I was obsessed with Greta Thunberg,” Scarlett says. “I thought it was so cool how much she had just decided that she needed to make her voice heard because she wasn’t hearing what she thought needed to be said.”

While Scarlett is beginning to grow into a global activist like the ones she sees and admires around her, she continues to be most inspired by the person closest to her: her mother.

“She’s always out in the world trying to make other people’s lives better and fix problems that she sees,” Scarlett says. “So, I really admire her, and [all the] people who put the world first.”

Despite the immense amount of inspiration, support, and encouragement from her mother, Lauren emphasizes that all of Scarlett’s accomplishments truly were reached by Scarlett herself. Other than acting as her typist or punching in phone numbers when Harper was a young ten-year-old, she has taken the initiative and put in significant work to make the changes she wanted to see. 

“In terms of what I’ve done to support Scarlett, you’ll laugh, but almost nothing,” Lauren jokes. “It’s really been me standing in the background in awe of her determination and just trying to be the supportive mom in the background.”

Scarlett has proven that she will put the world first before anything. Paving the way for other North Shore students and global citizens to speak up about the problems they see in their own communities, Scarlett has demonstrated that anything is possible. 

“I really believe that every person can have such an impact if they just take an issue that they think is important,” Scarlett says. “If you go into something just believing that there’s no reason it shouldn’t be able to happen, then people will see that, and they will realize that it should be something that has to change.”

Scarlett hopes to encourage younger generations to use their voices to highlight and prompt upward progress for the future. Age is truly just a number, an old phrase that Scarlett has proven time and time again to be true. 

“You have so much more power than you even realize,” Scarlett stresses. “People want to hear from you, and don’t be afraid to state the obvious of how important some of these issues are. You’re going to be living in the world that these current decisions are creating, so it’s so important that you get a say in what that world will be.”

To stay up to date with Scarlett’s climate journey and progress, follow @scarlettharper2045 on Instagram.