Anya Dillard

Anya Dillard is an 18 year-old activist, philanthropist, social entrepreneur and aspiring filmmaker from New Jersey, US. She is also the Founder of The Next Gen Come Up - a non-profit organisation dedicated to encouraging youth to explore activism, pursue community service and raise awareness through creativity. Though Anya has been a socio-political changemaker since she was 12, she started her very first initiative when she was just five years-old. In her community, she is best known for contributing to the largest civil rights demonstration in her town’s history (attended by over 3,000 people), delivering a speech that received over 26,000 views via social media, helping to organise her town’s first-ever Juneteenth celebration, and being elected president of the first all-female, all POC, Student Council cabinet in her high school’s history.

Anya has been featured by countless media publications including The Washington Post, CNN, Elle, Seventeen and Glamour Magazines, and received numerous honours and awards. She’s currently studying Media Studies and Social Justice at Rutgers University Newark.

One action Anya would like everyone to take:

"Donate to The Next Gen Come Up's Go Fund Me and help us to continue the amazing organising work we've been doing :)"

Follow Anya on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok @iamajdillard and YouTube.