All It Takes Is One Person To Change The World

EPISODE #6: With Guest: Natalie Hampton.

Seventeen year old Natalie Hampton is a Los Angeles high school senior, anti-bullying activist, app developer, and the CEO of a non-profit called Sit With Us, Inc. Natalie was severely bullied in middle school, and was forced to eat lunch alone nearly every day. After she switched schools, and quickly fell in with a great friend group, she would invite anyone who was eating alone to join her lunch table. Those people became not only her friends, but friends with everyone in the group, and were invited to social gatherings. She saw that one simple act of kindness made a big difference in their lives. This inspired her to create the Sit With Us mobile app, which serves as a free lunch planning tool for middle and high school kids so that no one has to eat lunch alone. Kids can use the app’s features to coordinate lunches with their friends.  They can also volunteer to be Sit With UsAmbassadors for their schools and post open lunch events on campus so that anyone looking for a table to join can find one. The app has been featured by Apple under “New Apps We Love” in the App Store, has been downloaded by 100,000+ people in eight countries worldwide, has won numerous awards, and has garnered the attention and acclaim of international media and press. Natalie recently was named 1 of 25 Women Changing the World by People Magazine. This past summer, she won the Outstanding Youth Delegate Award from the United Nations Youth Assembly, and was given the privilege to speak from the podium in the Great Assembly Hall about the importance of a peaceful and inclusive society. She has also been an invited keynote speaker at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, TEDxTeen London, and many conferences, including “Girls Can Do” (Washington D.C.), Renaissance Weekend (Charleston), and Say NO Bullying (Los Angeles). Recognizing the effectiveness of her solution, six prominent anti-bullying organizations are partnering with Natalie, including Born This Way Foundation, PACER, and Champions Against Bullying, and her non-profit has received grants from corporations such as Disney, Samsung, and the Learning Channel.

In addition to her work with Sit With Us, Natalie volunteers extensively for her community.  She is a senior counselor for United in Harmony, a non-profit organization that runs a sleep away camp for underprivileged and homeless kids, and she also tutors underprivileged kids at the Otis Booth campus of Children’s Institute Inc.