Stanley cops are my recent bug this is the time I'm going to look on social media for you know in the morning not necessarily first thing sometimes first thing absolutely they like suck you right in you feel like I could go for a hike in these and yeah amazing I know I know Bridget Jones was on to something [Music] huh hey I'm Casey J and welcome to Young Scots new this is how I feel podcast where we talk to guests who've grown up or live in Scotland about their experiences and how they COPE in
the world world we find ourselves in today in each episode we'll tackle a different topic with a brand new guest and today we are really excited to be chatting to Laura young about climate anxiety activism and burnout you might know Laura from her campaigning work which aims to see single use disposable Vapes banned across Scotland and the UK Laura is also an award-winning climate activist environmental scientist and ethical influencer now Laura has been nominated for and won a range of awards s
he was even a finalist at our very own Sunday Mail young Scott Awards so let's get into it all right Laura H that was a big Spiel from me do you feel uncomfortable when people list all your accolades like that or you tell about it now I mean it feels like hearing your CV back you like okay no do you know I mean I think it's good because often you just bumble along in life and maybe forget what you do oh no it's good and it reminds you of you know in the work I do there's so many frustrating mome
nts and failures and all that so it is sometimes you get to look back and go okay we have achieved things whether it's me personally or with all the campaigns that you do it it is good to hear it because how often do you take a moment to actually you know tally that up because it's always onto the next thing isn't it you never really take stock yeah and when you work in the environmental sector like your job is never done so is sometimes good to pause and say that was a small win and that was yo
u know chipping away at the big problems but it can be hard cuz you know even the campaigns that you've mentioned even the stuff about Vapes for example I won an award for that campaign but it's not over you know we've not solved it but I think it's also important CU I'm sure we'll get on to it but you need those things that keep you going so certainly yeah it's always good to look at the highlights those little landmarks but yeah you're doing amazing work to chip away at that issue though among
st you know everything else that you've been up to never stop working I want to say that Laura was posting a Tik Tok on her way in the work is never done you've always you've got to be honestly you've got to just keep going with it but but I think I love it you know it's a wave chats people it's a tool in- your tool box well welcome Laura and thank you so much for joining us now we are going to kick off with a simple question that we ask all our guests how are you feeling today I feel good you k
now we're kind of recording this near the end of January January blues can sometimes be a thing but I feel we've had some nice snowy wintry weather which I think looks beautiful especially when you're inside and you just get to look out H I feel it's a new New Year I've got you know sort of lots of exciting projects coming up this year but also it's not too overwhelming yet so yeah I feel I feel good ready to take on the New Year absolutely although you're right you probably haven't been able to
get out the house in dundy no no lots of snow lots of rain lots of flooding but very relevant to what I do so it's always a good story look at the environment around us exactly it's happening uh now we heard a little bit about your work Laura in the intro but I am really Keen to hear more more about you and what inspired you to get into all the incredible stuff that you've got going on just now yeah I mean to be honest I work in the environmental sector so when I was at school I just loved geog
raphy and I didn't really know what I wanted to do as a job I couldn't really see what a career might look like but I just knew this is a subject that I really like so I just kind of went to pursue it and didn't really have too many hopes just said let's see where it goes and so you know years went by went to UNI studied did it even more and just loved it fell in love with it and have been working in that ever since and I think part of it is that it's kind of academically it was the only thing I
liked at school so you just jumped two feet in this is what I did with English Lit yeah but Jer can't solve the climate crisis do you know what I mean but creative people have a big part in it so honestly you know I work with so many creatives but you know I think like just pursuing something you're passionate about is a great start it was a mixture of you know loving this subject area but also really seeing the need for Change and and I think that's what really got me into this but to be hones
t I think I became a bit of a campaigner and everyone's a bit of an activist there's not one way of doing it I think I became it when I was at University but coming to the end of it and thinking oh my goodness what am I supposed to do after this I have no idea didn't have any job lined up you know didn't really know but right in my final year we had blue planet so many people watched that and I remember just thinking okay even if I can just play my part like even if I just try think about the li
ttle changes I could do and that's when I made a New Year's resolution so this was 2018 to just try to be more sustainable and started documenting my journey and when I started to document it was doing it on Instagram that's where Les was Laura came from it was just a place to document a New Year's resolution and from that it's obviously grown into more of a space to not just say here's my favorite plastic free products or shops but now it's obviously a place to say here's the big issues of toda
y but here's how you can get involved and here how we can all make Chang but really it just came out of my favorite SES subject seeing the change that we need to make and then just giving it a go so January really is the time when you thrive yeah January is when I come out my bubble and say what am I doing this year what tackling so yeah but that's why and that's why I love New Year's resolutions cuz actually you never know what might happen when you set one cuz I set one and then made well a ca
reer out of it but also it really brought to me okay this is what I'm supposed to be doing for my career my job and and I've loved it ever since and I think it's a really hard thing to stick to I mean everybody does it right every year you sit and you go no chocolate you know I'm going to do this I'm going to do that was that the first one that you really stuck to yeah I think so I mean and I think partly because it was quite manageable you know I think sometimes we said really unrealistic ones
yes but it was totally manageable and and I also interestingly people always say where did last way Laura come from and it was because when I was beginning to document it I said I should probably make a page for this so I made on Instagram and at the time there was this trend it's still a bit of a trend called zero waste living and I just thought that feels really unattainable and also not really the point you know it shouldn't be about me being perfect and that will solve everything it's about
all of us and that's why I P Les was Laura had a bit of a ring to it but also because I thought if I do zero waste Laura I'll never achieve it and it'll just crash and burn but I said a really manageable task which was I'm just going to explore what it looks like to be more sustainable but in a way that I can actually carry on throughout the year do you think that sharing that publicly helped kind of hold you accountable in a way as well yeah definitely and it also it's a two-way street so when
I started it it was because people were saying what was that shop that you bought that thing from or can you tell me why that's more sustainable I don't really understand so I use it as a place to document but also inform and you know I think if anyone also goes to college or uni or has a really cool job you should share it with people because not everyone gets a chance to do these things so I was also kind of threading in some of the knowledge that I had from my background I want to know though
right what was the first sustainable change that you can you can remember making was it like a water bottle was it period pants talk to me both my period pads on right now that yeah yes I love them yeah and to be honest I also love this because there's some changes that are just purely environmental right so you have a plastic toothbrush you get a bamboo toothbrush really that's just an environmental change it doesn't really change your life that much with period products it's not just good for
the environment oh my gosh it's good for money you know it saves you loads of money they might be a bit more expensive to buy at the first place but they last forever and it also just saves you from running out those embarrassing moments and they're so good for things like going to the gym going hiking amazing so I think the period products were one of the first things as well I remember my mom got me a moon cup for Christmas which is so random and I also like half opened it and was like I'm no
t going to open that in front of everyone but it was one of the first things that I did so 2018 got a menstrual cup and I still have it I've never had to buy another one and I've got a few period pads and period pants that just supplement it and you think it's just yeah been so great and it was one of the first things and it's something I'm such a big and I know you're really passionate about that stuff as well it's period poverty sustainability it's all wrapped in one and may I say so comfy so
comfy absolutely they like suck you right in you feel like I could go for a hike in the yeah amazing I know I know Bridget Jones was on to something huh absolutely but is but I do love finding these things that you think it's not just addressing you know the waste that's associated with it it's actually addressing lots of other issues um you know around cost affordability just the idea of you know never having to forget or or miss out always having something there makes your life easier and also
think about how many single use products come from that whole Market you know it's wild the amount of even like the rapping of you know you're you're really doing something there one person can actually make an impact there by that switch to and it's good as well to see that you know here in Scotland we've got obviously free period products in public places which is great but lots of organizations are also trying to give out the reusables I remember when I was at um doing my masters in Edinburg
h I was part of the lacrosse team and I was talking to them about my moon cup and I was like the unique gives them away for free and I like collected all these up and I was like Oprah I was like you get a moon cup and you get them was like throwing them at everyone over the dinner and I was like there we go everyone go but it was amazing because it really does you know change people's lives at times because they are honestly I'm such an advocate for them um and I love that you know more schools
are doing talks about it and at Unis and colleges they've got stalls yeah such a fan do you know what's Wild as well your mom must be so incredibly proud of you but to see you give out Moon cups just like she gave to you that must have been a real moment for her yeah but she does also go co God you talk about it a lot she like it's not the most glamorous thing I mean we're all up for like talking about it and transparency we love it but she has like oh gosh you know it's kind of funny it's that
generation thing isn't it it's like oh yeah do it in your own time save it I know but it's good yeah she loves it what about a we starter pack then like in terms of small changes that people could make you know at the next payday yeah well do you know the thing that I always tell people to do is a waste audit right it sounds so boring but when I first was doing this New Year's resolution and trying to everything I was actually away for New Year so came back to my flat after you know having lovel
y time away and had this in my head like this is going to be my New Year's resolution and when you walk back into your flat with this idea of I really want to cut my waist and be more sustainable you suddenly walk in and go oh my goodness there's a lot to change so you know you go to the bathroom and you look at all your toiletries all completely packaged in plastic you go to the kitchen you know everything is wrapped in plastic you suddenly realize you've got a big job ahead of you and in that
moment you can't just say okay I'm going cold turkey and I'm going to not buy anything cuz then you go to the supermarket and what would you do so what I decided to do was for two weeks I just collected my waste so even if I was out and about you know if I got a takeaway coffee or I got a meal deal whatever it is I just kind of kept it with me until I got home and after two weeks I just looked at it I just put it all out on the kitchen floor and was like what waste do I actually produce because
the image is scaring me already I know right it was quite overwhelming because when you actually see it all laid out and I started to kind of sort it out and say well you know these things are all the same or these are the same category and I started to look at it and one of the things I realized as a final year university student you know I was kind of cramming for exams I was doing meditation I wasn't really that great at remembering just fun yeah just functioning and I realized looking at my
waist half of it was just to do with lunches and food on the go so I would wake up and just go to the library I would get take away coffees I would get a meal deal I would get you know take away boxes of stuff from local cafes and I realized in that moment okay to tackle half of my waist I just need to get a coffee cup and remember it take a set of Cutlery with me everywhere I go take a little box and maybe try and pack my lunch a few days a week right not not massive changes and I did that for
a few weeks and suddenly realized okay I've halfed my waist and then I did it again and you find other options and the reason I think it's important to do that is when I was talking to my grandparents about this I was like so everybody should get a takeway coffee cup and reusable and da da da and they were like Laura we're in our 80s do you really think we walk anywhere with a coffee we like to sit and watch the world go by but it's true you know actually for everyone your waste will be differen
t if you're a university student maybe it is the meal deals that take away coffee cups if you're a young professional who you know whatever it might be you you'll have your own waste and so I think there is a good stter pack for everyone you know it's a water bottle a coffee cup a set of Cutlery none of which needs to be new you've probably got stuff in your house that that will suit already but for actually addressing waste you know people might be able to to look at their waste and tweak it so
there is starter packs and little things I'd recommend but there's also just people taking the time to look at their own waist and thinking what are the we changes I could make this is why we need people to individually chip away at it right and you know on the face of it climate anxiety and you know everything that's going on in the world how the heck do you contend with that not being overwhelming on a daily basis when you show up to work yeah it is difficult I mean I think partly it's about
getting active so you know if we if we sit and do nothing globally we're obviously not going to make the change but even just personally I find it's good to get that sort of anxious energy out by by going in and trying to help and so whether that's you know going and picking the litter that's in your Park so that you look at it and go it's gone it's fixed you feel better instantly or whether that's you know joining a local community group and saying how can I help with whatever issues you know y
ou're trying to do so you know there might be a little Nature Reserve in your area and you can like help be part of the the team that looks after that or it might be you know joining a group that's trying to get some stuff changed in your local area I think getting involved can be helpful and that's certainly what I found and even though my work all surrounds it even in my spare time I'm trying to to kind of do my bit en Joy with other people and you know I think over the years I've done stuff l
ike been part of the youth ocean network with the marine conservation Society the Scottish Wildlife tro young leaders 2050 climate group young people across Scotland trying to do stuff so it's also just getting together with other people and saying how can we help each other out and sometimes it might be as Extreme as you then launch a whole campaign to try and B disposable Vapes for example but you know it doesn't even need to be that it can just be joining with people because the main thing ab
out climate anxiety is it's not going to go away until we solve the problem so we may as well just get on with trying to solve the problem you know I don't think taking a bubble bath or reading a book or going for a walk will solve it it will help in the short term but actually getting involved getting surround people who you know are with you on the cause is probably the best thing you can do and and on a personal level Laura has that helped you to kind of deal with that sense of like oh my goo
dness you know at least there's other people are in this with me because sometimes I suppose when you are that one person picking up the Cris packet on the walk and people are going well done sweetheart you know you're like ah there are more of us at least try to do something here yeah and I think also in the news we often just hear the negative stories and there are a lot of them you know the kind of big impacts that are happening or the really poor decisions that might be happening from govern
ments or businesses but when you get plugged into these groups you also hear about the really great stuff you know the really cool stories locally about schools that are taking on stuff in their curriculum or local groups that have managed to save a green space and are doing some cool stuff with biodiversity or or whatever it might be and I think hearing those good news stories is great but also yeah just having people around you to help you support you in the work that you're doing but also vic
e versa I think is yeah absolutely crucial yeah let's talk about activism right because as you said before people are probably you know influencing people in their Inner Circle more than they realize just doing their thing yeah and that is kind of how you got into it right with your resolution and all you know putting your content out there showing people your journey but how do you juggle you know I don't want to say being like the face of a cause cuz but you are you know realistically you know
you've put yourself out there and it's it's amazing but how do you kind of grapple with that in your own head like going I okay right I need to do this and I need to put that out there is that ever a challenge h I don't know I mean I think sometimes it just happens you know you end up being the face of it and I think so the Disposable Vapes campaign just as an example it's not just me there are so many people involved there's people who have done policy work and briefings and documents and rese
arch people who have organized meetings you know run the zoom groups being able to make the tea and coffee like all of this stuff which is so important and some of them just don't want their face to be it yeah and others it's just about skill set and so I think actually sometimes it just works out that you end up saying well my role in this campaign is being the face of it or being the one who goes on to the radio or goes on to the TV to do that and and that's okay um and there's lots of times w
here you know that's not my role you know I'm the one making the tea and the coffee or running the zoom room or taking the meeting minutes you know and I think sometimes it's it's just about yeah kind of seeing that so sometimes it's also just realizing like if that's what it takes you know putting myself on the Facebook or putting myself out there I'm okay with that because it'll it'll get us where we need to go well it makes it more accessible doesn't it because you know yourself when you see
something that's very obviously basically an advert yeah you you do switch off something cognitively happens and you go well this is an agenda yeah yeah absolutely so I love a person I love a story and I think but it comes you know it comes with time you know when I started posting stuff online about sustainability my face wasn't even on it you know I was just showing products that I thought cool or campaigns and things that were going on and slowly I just kind of brought my face into it and was
talking about you know because that's what people were interested in they're interested in the person behind it um but I think also one of the best things I've always had people say is oh it's just you're just so you know friendly about all of this and I think sometimes when it's like a big organization talking about is quite removed you don't really know who's there but I'm just yeah I'm just a person just trying to do my bet and sharing my stories and sharing my fails as well you know like wh
en I've got it wrong um or something I'm struggling with you know I think that can be helpful for people to to actually see a person behind it do you remember the first bit of content that you made that fully exposed your identity yeah I think it was to do with our I think I went full on as well I think it was to do with a shampoo bar uhuh and cuz one of the criticisms people were like oh it just doesn't work like it doesn't lather up like and I was like it does like it does lather and so I thin
k I like was in the shower and decided to like lather up well and I like put my hair up and it was just a photo of my face what goodness no it was like I did this big like lathered it all up and like spiked my hair up Simpson it like yeah and I took a photo to be like as in it was like here just you know there you it's okay that's my shampoo bar but Lush did actually take the photo and post it on their own channel so it was quite an overwhelming like real first kind of like boom that was one of
my big first okay my face is not out there you know I'm sure i' maybe shown Snippets of my face before but that was the first real like I'm trying to prove a point here that this is a good product and then yeah it went quite like that was like OG viral back in the day like yeah it was quite but it was good cuz actually people were like oh this is interesting it feels like a person cuz if anybody if Lush posted a picture of me in the shower I'd be absolutely horrified so I'm really pleased that y
ou've taken that one well yeah I know I I was a bit like oh okay there we go wow I know yeah made it Mom I'm adding model to the CV so good whereas before that was just hand model exactly yeah just a few little bits and pieces what about the the feedback that maybe is slightly more negative now I can imagine with the The Vape campaign specifically you might have some angry comments yeah how is that to deal with it's interesting I think the Disposable Vape stoft has been going on for you know a y
ear to 18 months night and actually it's interesting to see that sometimes over that time people that were quite negative or quite confrontational at the beginning have kind of gone on a bit of a journey and sometimes are now kind of seeing what it's about cuz sometimes people just think wow this person's really full on they're wanting to ban things and they're talking about can be quite full on but actually when you take them on a journey you know you can kind of win them over but actually one
of the things I love and some platforms are really really good for this Tik Tok in particular yeah if you get um a comment that's quite critical or maybe it's you know got misinformation it's wrong or it's it's an opinion that kind of keeps coming back you can reply to it with a video in a really educational way you know I'm not going this person's horrible look at their comment I'm saying actually here's a really good moment for us to take what this person has said and sometimes many people say
it so it can be a voice that you hear quite a lot and and actually let's go into it you know let's explain it the kind of classic ones you know I've been doing a few videos recently about over consumption and just this idea that we just tend to buy way too much and and we don't need to buy it and Manley cops are my recent bug bear these ginormous water bottles that were actually made to be reusable and save waste but now people have tons of them and it's become a big issue all I hear about is t
he car went on fire oh the the car the car went on fire and then she took the cup out the car shook it ice it but what's happened now is we have this like huge boom right and it's it's my recent bug bear and I've done so many videos about it but like one kind of classic comment I get is people saying like oh you must be fun at parties like let people have their fun like why are you telling people what they shouldn't shouldn't buy and actually you know you do get that kind of thing quite a lot bu
t what you can do is you can reply to and say hold on let's talk about why I think it's important to to say you know and in that case it's saying you know people can have a Stanley Cup they just don't need 20 and here's you know here's a couple of stats about it and but you can use it and so I think often how much money do people have they're pricey by the way I know I know but we'll get them at a discount when they all end up in the charity shop now year because that's Happ but you know I think
often with criticism it's actually a point and it was interesting because I did do that for one of these Stanley Cup videos and I did you know kind of make a response and actually the person who left the comment then left a new one and was like you know I really appreciate this point of view like thanks for explaining it and it's a win and so sometimes it's actually about taking the criticisms and the negative comments and using it as as a way to say like here's a really good point you know and
and I think often on social media you miss the Nuance because you have to cram all of what you're wanting to say into 90 seconds or into a certain number of words so you do you you can mess things out just because you don't have the time or you don't have the the space so actually being able to reply and use it so but also I mean I think just as a general Point social media is not real right you can just put your phone away right like you can remove yourself from it how often do you have to tel
l yourself that because it's a daily thing for me well this is the thing I also like you just kind of get put in your place when like you know I'll be sitting talking to my boyfriend and I'll be like oh there's just this thing that happened today and he's like I have no idea what you're on about and you're like oh yeah it's all in my world you know like people no one else is looking at the comments and and stressing over these and so you can remove the comments you can delete and you can just ta
ke time away and it's not to say that online hate is not a thing but it's about saying that you can set a boundary and just remove yourself from it and and not let it bother you and you know I have never gone to a talk a presentation or done it and had people say that to my face and it's because you know that people are just saying it it's on social media so you know I think there's also just a point of and and that's not to kind of throw away I know that you know online bulying is a huge issue
but I do think there is ways to manage it and I've managed to do that better you know probably back in 2018 2019 if I got a horrible comment I would sit and think about it and reread it and be you know really sweating over it but over the years you just learn how to deal with it whether it's removing the comment blocking the person just taking time away responding to it you know people learn their own ways of doing that and I think that's what's helpful but that is something that you kind of lea
rn over time but it stings right especially the first time it happens I'd imagine it would be quite I've had it people say can't he go that girl's voice who's that daff Lassie on the radio it happens all the time and you have she thinks she's really funny and you have these moments I'm sorry but that was funny I'm funny I know how dare you and how how do you deal with it what what are some of the things that you do do you know it is you just have to do exactly what you said and assume that there
's no way that person would say that to my face and if they did say that to my face then you know that tells me a lot more about them but I think that it's come with age as well because for sure when you know when you're young and and everything feels like the end of the world which I know is really patronizing but it's also so true um that is what I would do as well I would sit and dissect the comment and try and find the the fact and the truth in it when realistically you know it's just some g
uy's opinion somewhere I'll never ever meet and you know learning to know it's okay to delete block remove that person you know was a really a big moment because otherwise I was just literally there could be a 100 lovely comments and if there's one person that says I don't like your face what's wrong with my face it's like that's why I'm in radio yeah and that's a great reply though that's why I in I know it can be tough but you know I think yeah there is a lot but I totally appreciate it and an
d sometimes it does get overwhelming I just take time away you know just take take time off yeah and yeah I mean it's an important lesson and it's one of those ones where it's like any advice feels relatively patronizing because people have to come to it in their own way and have to kind of figure it out which is which can be an agonizing process for sure but also as you say you work out your own coping strategies and you work out whether it's more important to say it and have one person be nega
tive about it than to keep your mouth shut and not be authentically you and not do what you want to do it makes you makes you kind of Sparkle yeah without saying that's a so Pinterest I I'm going to get that I retract yeah get I'll put it on the wall be beauti I know but to be honest and I think as well for me though and maybe it's different if people only have a personal social media yeah but I do see mine as like part of my work so you know I don't sit and just mindlessly kind of scroll and an
d read and spend lots of time there so sometimes it's just about going on posting something that you want and then taking a step back and saying you know and trying to set boundaries you know if it's the weekend maybe I don't need to sit on Instagram today and you know kind of you know kind of doing that I know it can be more difficult and again it's it's a boundary thing and and it can be obsessive you know or if something's doing really well like just sit and check it all day and and it gets a
bit too much so yeah yeah who's used my sound wow uh the last few years have been wild and for you you have just done so much you've achieved so much and a relatively you know short time frame especially with everything that was going on in the world a few years ago um when we just couldn't do anything but you still managed to to go out there and and and make some really positive changes how do you deal with that climate anxiety and make sure that you you don't face the burnout trying to kind o
f battle this uh on your own I suppose to a certain extent yeah I mean one of the key things is about kind of boundary setting as you said there was a term and it really came to light in covid Doom scrolling right you would and it's CU we had nothing else to do so you would just be sitting scrolling and whether it's information about Co at the time or information about any sort of Injustice there was loads of racial Injustice there was loads of climate crisis issues there was loads of stories th
at were just a lot and I think it's so important that we address those and and we're aware of them and you know we don't hide away from it but certainly it's about saying okay enough is enough for today so for me a couple of the things I've tried to do is not necessarily you know I'm not too Tech savy I've not set all those time limits on my apps and anything like that but I do try and say this is the time I'm going to look on social media for you know in the morning not necessarily first thing
sometimes first thing but you know I'm going to check the update see what's been going on you know see if there's anything I need to to look at and then normally it's at the end of the day so you know the kind of last thing I do at work is you know check again see what updates have been you know if I've had to post anything um and I think that's been quite helpful so that I'm not just sitting aimlessly scrolling or if I am I'm just trying to do it on a fun platform like Tik Tok or something wher
e it's just for fun I think in between all of that heavy stuff there's just daff videos of dogs falling over ex exactly so you know trying to not just sit on for example like Twitter where is just sometimes quite a lot and so try to you know find the fun things I also think with my news I think news consumption is huge because know back in the day it was the newspaper and the 6:00 news maybe on the Tor or the radio whereas now news is 24/7 you get it everywhere and it's mixed in with your social
media kind of whether you like it or not so I've also tried to think about how I get my news so I found a few really good Daily News Roundup podcasts that sort of thing so you know I I've got a dog so I walk my dog twice a day three times a day and I've got a few podcasts that I'll listen to and it gives me all the updates for the news of the day and it keeps me kind of in the look with what's going on and then if anything's really interesting I'll go and go and kind of find out more about it s
o I've tried to also kind of not just be sitting because I think there was a bit in Co where we all just sat glued to the T because we wanted to know what the update was so I think you know trying to find a way that you get your news and you know Finding happy news stories there's things like the happy news broadcast or like you know environmental stories that are really positive so again like trying to find those and to make sure you do that but I think that's a lot about just information and a
nd and trying not to be overwhelmed by that but I think when it comes to kind of climate activism and burnout it can be really really easy to just feel like there's always work to be done and basically just spend all your time doing it so I think partly what I've tried to do is make my climate activism my campaigning outside of my job so my full-time job is I'm a PhD scientist right so I'm Monday to Friday most of the time 95 what day is it most of the time yeah not today though um but you know
so that I try and like block that out and say well that's when I'm doing my PhD research and if I have to take time out of it to do things like cool podcasts I'll make that time up but for the sort of campaigning work that I do I tried to keep it like a hobby so if your hobby was dancing or swimming or running or whatever you would normally do it maybe two three nights a week and I S so I try and keep it to that you know I try to keep it that amount of time so it's not just all the time constant
and I think that's really good but certainly for the burnite it's about finding other people so when I started the climate not the climate stuff when I started the Disposable Vape stuff it was just me on my own and I was you know putting stuff out on social media saying I'm really annoyed about this issue is anyone else doing anything what's going on and very quickly realized there's a lot of interest there's a lot of stuff that we need to be getting on with so I thought okay let's get people t
ogether so there's been amazing organizations who have come together to do their bit like young Scot did some amazing stuff about research and engaging young people we've had local councils doing stuff we've had loads of different organizations everybody's taking on their own bit it might not be that they're necessarily Associated directly with the campaign but everyone's kind of Taken chunks on and said we'll tackle that and I think that really helps with burn out is saying I don't have to do i
t all by myself there is other people who can help and deying up that work and it can be hard because you maybe have to give things away that you're like I would have quite liked to do that but you're really good at the policy stuff you're really good at the photography you're really great at you know getting whatever is so I think partly for burnite it's about bringing people together and you know if there's an issue in your school in your uni in your local area with a business you know don't t
ry and tackle it on your own do it with other people and social media has been a great way for me to connect with people but you can also join local groups you know there will be local Wildlife group or activist Group whatever it might be and you can just join it and and find other people and I think that's been the key thing for burn night is you know setting the boundaries not spending every waking minute you have people around you who go right that's you know that's enough you know like enoug
h of the phone or like come on it's time for dinner or whatever it might be like having those people that that can kind of keep your accountable is is really important but yeah having other people that can help I think has been key and you know now the campaign is still rumbling on but it's not taking up all my time there's loads of people involved and I think that's the really key thing is about because also if I crash and burn then it goes nowhere so there's no there's no point in me trying to
do everything and then burning out um so that's a few kind of tips and tricks I've had over the years for the climate anxiety stuff but also the burnout this is a biggie if you had the power to get in a tardis right now go back in time what advice would you give a slightly younger version of yourself I assume you're going to start with perod pants yeah straight away from school that that would be it that would be the SLE thing oh I don't know I mean I think um it would probably be something abo
ut so the people that I had around me when I was H kind of looking at you know the end of school and thinking about what I wanted to do so my mom and my dad and my older brother and that was the kind of you know people right close to me and my mom and dad have both worked in their jobs at the same places for 30 years right and my brother is on the same track you know he you know had a very clear idea of what he wanted to do and already you know he's worked at this one place forever doing one job
and so I think for me I would tell myself that it's okay if your career looks slightly different to those that are in your immediate family or immediate friends so you know I've already had more jobs than all of my family combined I've got probably what I would someone Ed the term portfolio career which I love because it makes it saying I do bits and Bobs a bit more professional you know so you've probably got a portfolio career you've got you know different things that you could add on you kno
w broadcas or podcast or social media whatever it might be and I kind of love that and I think I would have said to myself early on just go for what you want to do even if you don't know what the 30-year career might be and it's okay to change because in each job that you do or opportunity that you get you'll learn something different and actually you know hindsight is 2020 because now looking back I'm going that's why I did that random three-month internship that's why I took on that really wei
rd project because now I've got these skills or I'm actually really glad that I didn't get that job or that I totally failed in that thing because that's giv me something else to think about and learn from and so that would just be the advice about you know don't kind of look around and see what other people are doing and get what like just go for it and you know I could in a couple of years time not have any more portfolio career opportunities and get a job and do it for 20 years and that's als
o okay you know it's okay to to be kind of changing like that and I think that would just be the piece of advice cuz I was obsessed at the end of school of thinking what do I want to do for the next 30 Years and that's not that's not reality talking about issues that seem completely insurmountable but that look at that like you don't even know who you're going to be next week when you're that age as well because so many things change and it was really nice to hear what you said as well about lik
e right at the start of the conversation just going well I like geography at school so that's what I did and it changed the whole trajectory of your life absolutely and I think if I'd been obsessing about a job as in a profession a career I might have gone into something totally different because I might have said okay I like geography so I should be a geography teacher because that's a career that I can think of I might have into te and it might have been the toally WR for me you never know or
it might have been I thought I really like geography so then I should probably go and be a landscape architect or a gardener and then I would have maybe tried to think about a job but instead I thought I just know that I like this subject and there will be opportunities at the end of it and I'm open to to letting that course kind of run and and seeing where it goes Laura you're are such a star I feel like we could chat for like another hour or three there's lots yeah there's so much but you're d
oing do incredible work and I wonder if there's anything that you wanted to kind of say as a parting uh message to the young Scots listening before we go I don't know I mean I think just you know for me I just picked something that I loved and and just went with it and I think you'll carve out a career and what you do and also I do speak to a lot of people though so if anyone is listening and you know environmental stuff is a passion sometimes it comes to you once you've already picked your subj
ects at school or once you've already picked what you're doing at college or uni or you've already got a job you can also still make a really big contribution to environmental issues even if you've not got an environmental job we need filmmakers and graphic designers and creative people to help us with all the messaging we need teachers and doctors and nurses and business people who can do sustainability in their fields and so I just I always get young people coming to me and saying I need some
advice I want to you know have environmental job what do you do and how can I do it and sometimes they'll already be on a path with something else and actually they can be that environmental person in that industry you know I was speaking to someone who was talking about they were doing economics at Uni and they felt like they'd made a total disaster because they were like I actually love the environment and I'm doing economics and it feels like I need to maybe drop out and I said no we need env
ironmental e economists we need people looking at finance and pensions and how do we make those more sustainable I can't do that that is not my skill set but that could be yours and so you know whatever you might be doing whether it's you know yeah whatever field it is you can make that environmental if that's something that you're passionate about and I think that's just my key takeaway as well as you know follow your dreams follow your passions all that kind of stuff the Pinterest stuff and th
e Pinterest stuff also just don't feel that you have to give up what you're doing now to add in environmental stuff like it can be part of what you do there we go and we all go home and we look in our covers and we tip everything out and we see how wasteful we really are yeah it's such good advice though there is something everyone can be doing it is and when the problems are so big so I was on the train down to this okay and I got a coffee at the train station and I've got my little cup with me
and you know everyone else around me was using disposable cups right and I just thought but I'm still saving one cup right it's still one cup that doesn't have to be manufactured produced shipped and used just once like I still saved that and although in the face of everything it's not going to make a huge difference it's still something and if more people do it the more we influenced the more we can do it so yeah you know be encouraged all the changes that you make help shift Society in a more
sustainable way and together the more people doing all these we things the better Laura you're wonderful thank you I have honestly loved this chat so much H so thank you to everyone who is who's tuned in uh for listening remember if you need help or support with how you are feeling young Scott has tons and tons of information at Young docot I feel that's h young. scott/ i a ye we Scottish uh feel if you want to follow Laura's work then make sure you're following her on Instagram and Tik Tok usi
ng less waste Laura it does have a lovely ring to it Laur it you are right or visit her website L was laura.com also don't forget if you're under 26 then make sure you get your free young Scott National entitlement card and with thousands of discounts in Scotland and across Europe subsidize public transport and a whole lot more uh visit young. scott/ card for more info finally young Scot members can claim 100 reward points for listening to this episode by visiting young Scott membership and typi
ng in clim it for your points code if you're not a member yet visit young. scott/ membership to get started uh today and earn points for activities and access exciting rewards as [Music] well
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