Yael was ten years old. One day, she read an article about plastic in the sea, and she couldn't stop thinking about it. Sea turtles eat plastic bags because the bags look like jellyfish, so many turtles get sick.
Yael wanted to help, but she didn't know how. She was only a kid! A week later, she had an idea. Every Friday after school, she went to the beach with a big bag and collected plastic. At first, she worked alone, and people looked at her strangely.
After a few weeks, her best friend joined her, and soon two boys from her class came too. Before long, there were thirty kids on the beach every Friday. They wore gloves because some of the plastic was dirty, and they sorted it so it could be recycled.
A local newspaper wrote about the group, so more people heard about it. Today, the group has two hundred members and cleans five beaches. Yael is fifteen now, but she still goes to the beach every Friday.
“You don't need to be big to make a big change,” she says. “You just need to start.”