PORTLAND, Maine — Leela Marie Hidier graduated from Yarmouth High School in the spring, but she is already a published author.
"My parents couldn’t take the pen away from the paper," Hidier laughed. "Whenever I had an idea, I was just scribbling it down."
Full of ideas, the teen did not choose a light topic for her first fiction novel, "Changes in the Weather," which tells stories from the perspectives of multiple people and even an animal living through climate change.
"My main goal with this novel was to really humanize the climate crisis and these social justice issues by telling stories instead of statistics," Hidier explained.
She attended courses at the Telling Room, a Portland-based publisher that offers programs and activities for young writers. The organization published "Changes in the Weather." Her mentors there, including Sonya Tomlinson, have since become fans.
"I think Leela is someone who wants to be thoughtful and careful and calculated about anything she puts in the world," Tomlinson said.
Charlotte Agell taught Leela in the Yarmouth school system and sang her praises as well.
"Art changes minds," Agell said confidently. "That’s her superpower."
It was a superpower Agell wanted shared with a broader audience, so she nominated her former student for the first Girls Leading Change celebration at the White House, which convened in October. Agell said there were hundreds of applicants. Hidier was one of 15 honored by first lady Jill Biden.
"I’m so proud of her I could cry," Agell beamed.
"It just reinforced that what I’m doing is leading positive change and that I am on the right path," Hidier said.
Leela said there are many different forms of activism, and through her work she hoped others found optimism along with the concern.
"I hope they find hope, because that is something that is very difficult, I feel like, to find in these very overwhelming conversations and spaces," she said.
Hidier planned to attend Bates College in fall 2024, continuing her environmental research.