North Sydney Girls High School asked Vesna Trobec to be a guest speaker and jury on student projects exploring ‘Design as an Agent of Change’ due to Vesna’s history of using design for social activism.

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Design is everywhere.

Therefore, there is scope for invention everywhere as well.

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The academically gifted Year 10 students were given exemption from normal classes to initiate social activist projects they felt passionate about.

Topics included:

• Advertising targeting children
• Global digital divide
• Gender inequality in the workplace
• Decline in face-to-face communication in the internet age
• Ethical and social consequences of 3D printing
• Internet addiction in children
• Online crime
• Online privacy threats
• Biodiversity loss
• The harmful effects of planned obsolescence and consumerist waste
• Deforestation
• Media representation of the mentally ill
• Prisons and recidivism
• Food wastage
• Teenage mental health
• Media stereotypes
• Sexualisation of women in the media
• Pro-euthanasia campaign
• Loss of cultural diversity
• Youth homelessness among those released from detention
• Truth in advertising
• Prevention of juvenile crime
• Improved nutritional awareness
• Gender stereotyping of children’s products