Emma Gonzalez: for calling B.S. on the NRA

It was three days after a young man armed with an AR-15 entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and shot 17 people dead when one of the survivors, 18-year-old Cuban-American Emma Gonzalez, took to the microphone at a rally on live television.

Her words were direct, and she left the crowd speechless. She was furious, but stuck to a clear objective: the need for gun control. To Donald Trump she said: “No more thoughts and prayers. It’s time for action."

Soon after, Gonzalez and three other survivors of the shooting began the #NeverAgain movement. Together they have more than 2 million Twitter followers - Gonzalez alone exceeded 1 million within 15 days of opening her @Emma4Change . Gonzalez tweets to politicians and those who push conspiracy theories about her and her friends. She cracks jokes with her fellow activists and even recorded a video as she shaved her head.

“I’m 18 years old, Cuban and bisexual,” she wrote in an essay in Harper’s Bazaar. She says if victims like her don’t take the reins, adults will bury the dead from another shooting rampage.

In a now famous CNN town hall, she thanked Mr. Foster, her government teacher, without whom she said she could not have written her now famous speech. Her activism has rallied celebrities such as George Clooney and Oprah Winfrey, who have donated $500,000 each to the Never Again movement. Gonzalez and her friends have organized a national march on March 24. The ‘March for our lives’ is shaping up to be massive.

Meanwhile, Emma González has become a protest icon, a leading activist and the darling of the media. The Washington Post even called her the face of a new generation of Latinos.