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In loving memory of grandpa, Richard Beale,
and his endless love of books
1930–2018
L.C.
First published in Great Britain in 2019 by Red Shed,
an imprint of Egmont UK Limited
The Yellow Building, 1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN
Text copyright © Laura Coryton 2019
Illustrations copyright © Egmont UK Limited 2019
First e-book edition 2019
ISBN 978 1 4052 9469 0
Ebook ISBN 978 1 4052 9574 1
A CIP catalogue for this book is available from the British Library.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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CONTENTS
STEP THREE: RESEARCH
STEP FOUR: PLATFORM
STEP FIVE: LAUNCH
CHAPTER 3: BOUNCE BACK
FAILURE
INTERNET TROLLS
CHAPTER 4: SPEAK UP EVERY DAY
RELATIONSHIPS
CONSENT
SELF-LOVE
CHAPTER 5: YOUR NEXT STEPS AND KICKING ASS
TAMPON TAX CAMPAIGN TIMELINE
INDEX
RESOURCES
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
YOU HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE THE WORLD.
IF YOU USE YOUR VOICE,
ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.
This book will help you to change the things in the world that shock you. Or even just annoy you. There is no issue too big or too small that YOU are not able to change. It might take time. It will take a lot of work. But every step we can take to make the world a better place is worth it.
How do I know? I ran a successful campaign that ended the hugely unfair ‘tampon tax’. That’s right, I said tampon. Don’t be shy. I even made the prime minister say the word ‘tampon’ out loud in Parliament (for the first time in its 800-year history). More on the tampon tax campaign later, but the upshot is: if I can do it, you can too.
There are many issues to feel passionate about. Maybe your local park is being sold off for fancy houses. Maybe your school doesn’t offer food for vegans. Maybe you want world peace (don’t we all?). Big or small, you can make a difference, but it can be hard to know where to start. So I’ve written this book to help you change your world.
Before I started my campaign, I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t have training, I don’t have any campaigning superpowers or global politician parents to help me. I’m really pretty ordinary. If I can do it, so can you, by using my FIVE-STEP TOOLKIT for change.
This book outlines the key steps you need to take to change the world. Together we will get specific about your goals (STEP ONE) and get focused on who to target (STEP TWO). I’ll show you how to be smart with your research (STEP THREE) and get creative with your platforms (you guessed it – STEP FOUR!). Finally, STEP FIVE will give you the confidence to plan your launch.
I had a lot of success in my campaign, but I also had a lot of knockbacks. I think it’s really important to talk about failing and how to BOUNCE BACK.
