Heroes Among Us
Source: Teen Speak

by Jessie Desvarieux, Aaron Duffy,
and Jenna Mamorsky
New York City, March 5, 2002

Don’t let her small size or youth fool you - Alexandra Govere is already accomplishing big things. The 14-year-old was recently one of 20 honorees at the annual Teen People 20 Teens Who Will Change the World event in New York City and has set her sights on helping AIDS orphans in Africa.

Having lived in Zimbabwe for the first 9 years of her life, Alexandra became involved in her community’s struggle to fight AIDS. She became so adamant about her cause to help young orphaned children stricken with the disease, she initially began funding her project with her own money.“Teens need peer role models, or hero models,” said Teen People Publisher Anne Kallin Zehren. “They need people besides role models who are older than they are.”

Ten thousand trend spotters across the United States helped Teen People identify this year’s teen role models. There were so many good candidates, Teen People was “hard-pressed” to whittle down the list to just 20 teens. “This generation is the most proactive,” Zehren said. This remark was certainly supported by the range of projects these teens assumed to make a huge difference in the world.

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