They weren’t founders.
They weren’t influencers.
They weren’t even old enough to get their ears pierced without a parent.
But in 2013, Melati and Isabel Wijsen—aged 12 and 10—stood up in a school assembly in Bali with a PowerPoint that barely worked and an idea that would eat the next five years of their lives:
Get plastic bags banned from the island.
Most people clapped politely.
Some teachers smiled like, “bless them.”
And the government ignored it entirely.
But they didn’t let it drop.
They rebranded the fight.
“Bye Bye Plastic Bags”: No Suits. No Shame. No Backup.
They made a name.
Made their own T-shirts.
Printed leaflets.
Hijacked beach clean-ups with banners and clipboards.
Then came the speeches.
TEDx talks, UN panels, international forums.
No handlers. No script.
Just two Balinese-Dutch sisters standing in front of suited adults and telling them, straight-faced:
“If we wait until we’re older, we won’t have anything left to fight for.”
People didn’t know what to do with that.
So they watched.
And then they started listening.
The Government Still Didn’t Budge. So They Starved.
When the Bali governor still hadn’t replied after years of petitions and press, Melati and Isabel went on a hunger strike.
Actual. Hunger. Strike.
Not as theatre—but as the only tactic left.
Two kids, barely teens, sitting outside government offices refusing food until they were heard.
That got the meeting.
And it worked.
Bali officially committed to a ban on single-use plastic bags in 2019.
By then, the girls were older—but not done.
They scaled up.
What Happens When Activists Don’t Grow Out of It
Most childhood campaigns die out. School ends. Life takes over.
But the Wijsen sisters didn’t drift.
They built infrastructure.
Bye Bye Plastic Bags expanded to over 60 global teams—from Kenya to New York—run by local youth who took the name and made it theirs.
They started Youthtopia, a global network to train young activists not just in protest but in real systems thinking, negotiation, and storytelling.
They were invited to Davos.
Spoke at the UN.
Made sure their story didn’t end as a one-off “kid activist” headline.
So Why Is This on Rebel & Reason?
Because this is rebellion at its rawest.
- They didn’t wait for the system—they hacked it.
- They didn’t call themselves entrepreneurs—but built a global brand.
- They didn’t monetise or chase VC funding—but moved policy across countries.
And they never got less angry.
Just better resourced.
If you’re building something—anything—and wondering how to do it without a degree, a network, or a budget… this is how.
Make it too honest to ignore.
Too persistent to kill.
Too real for press kits.
Because if two schoolkids with cardboard signs and a broken projector can force a plastic ban on an island of 4 million people—
what’s your excuse?