There is no one quite like Mya-Rose Craig – and that, for once, is not just a cliche. The 21-year-old ornithologist who, I should say, is actually Dr Mya-Rose Craig after receiving an honorary doctorate in science from Bristol University in 2020 (the youngest British person to receive such an award), somehow balances a career as a thrice-published author – including her bestselling memoir, Birdgirl, which comes out in paperback in October – with activism centred around environmentalism and diversity.
Oh, and all the while completing a degree in Human, Social and Political Sciences at St John's College, Cambridge, where she is soon entering her third year at the prestigious university after a much-deserved summer break. The daughter of a British father and Bangladeshi mother, Mya-Rose's interest in birdwatching was cultivated in childhood after her parents took the family (She also has an older sister) on “birding” (the insider term) trips throughout her youth. However, from her early years she made this interest her own, starting her blog, Birdgirl, at the age of 11, and – she tells me during our interview – campaigning to raise $35,000 for a Bangladeshi charity the following year.
In our interview, she shares with GLAMOUR how her early interest in birdwatching has evolved into this unique career, and how we could all benefit from the nature activity she's devoted her life to.
Hi Mya! Firstly, I'd love to know what being an “activist” means for you?
I've done a lot of thinking about this over the years. The conclusion I've come to is just that an activist is someone who takes action and is trying to change things. You probably could narrow it down and define it more than that. But I don't think you need to. It's just someone trying to make things better. My campaigning and activism is obviously shaped by the fact that I am a young woman and that I'm not white and various other parts of my identity, which I think is why I've always been so involved in particular with global climate justice and intersectionality within the environmental movement. From my perspective, it's always been obvious why we need to bring all of these other issues in and think about it from that perspective. For someone with different life experiences, that may not even occur to them, which is why we need diversity of thought within a movement.
Working on the ground, having conversations with people about gender, misogyny, sexual violence and more feels more impactful that meetings in Parliament ever did.
When you were growing up, did you perceive much of that diversity among the birdwatchers you and your family knew, or was it all middle-aged blokes?
Oh, God, no. Probably when I was a younger kid – I was born in 2002 – birdwatching with my family, there were – apart from my mum and older sister – three other women maximum who did birdwatching. And everyone else was white. It was a bunch of, like you said, middle-aged blokes. It didn't make me uncomfortable because it was a community I had been part of for longer than I remembered. I knew everyone and everyone knew me. It was only as I got a bit older – I was probably 13 or 14 – that I noticed it was weird. It was probably at that age people started thinking the same of me, coming to me and going but why would you want to do bird watching of all hobbies? Like, you are not the person I'd imagine that wants to do that. But I started to think, but why is there a certain type of person who does do these things? And what can we do to change that – how can we bring more people into the fold? Because, from my own life experiences, I knew how important having a connection to nature in the outdoors is.
In my book Birdgirl, I write about this dichotomy between how self conscious I was as a teenager – I really wanted to melt into the walls a bit, especially when I was in school – and how much I loved doing this hobby where people could spot me outside. I was not someone who particularly wanted to be seen or observed, but at the same time I was doing a lot of stuff to not blend in and not disappear, especially in terms of the activism and campaigning. I had this online sphere when I was loud, passionate and determined and had opinions and things to say. It was the privilege to experiment with voicing my opinions and trying to create change online, and it meant I was able to transition into being that person in real life.
I want to come back to your definition of activism, which you mentioned involved taking action. Can that be true of online activity? For instance, someone posting a tweet – does that make them an activist?
While I'm not critical of it, I would not say that posting on social media is activism. You could say it's raising awareness – and I think that kind of stuff is really important in terms of normalising these conversations. Campaigns can begin online, however. For example, when I was 11, there was this terrible oil spill in Bangladesh in the mangrove forests [known as the 2014 Sundarbans Spill], which is a really important habitat in terms of the Bengal tiger, various bird species, and of course the people who live there. And no one reported on it in the West: the BBC, the media in the USA didn't seem to care. I only found out about it because my family's from Bangladesh [Mya-Rose has Bangladeshi heritage on her mother's side]. So, in the end I decided to write blog posts about it, and I found a charity that was raising money to deal with it. Then I sent that post around to various publications and got it published in a magazine in the US and raised a lot of awareness. I managed to raise around $35,000 (£28,000) in the end. All of that was while I was sitting at home, and it did genuinely make a difference.
A lot of children are introduced to hobbies by their parents, like visiting museums or reading fiction, which they abandon as adults. What was it that your parents got right when it came to sparking your interest in birdwatching?
It was a combination of things. When I was a kid, they allowed me to explore nature and birds in the way that I wanted to do it. It was super fun, like we were going on a treasure hunt or playing a competitive game. It was like, let's go and find this. We'd have this big list where we're trying to tick everything off. And then, they'd say, if you want to go and run off and climb those rocks for 20 minutes, that's fine too.
It was also a way to spend time with my family. My parents, especially when I was very young, were both busy with work, so this was the time that was allocated to we spent with one another. It meant that we could always look forward to that special summer holiday birdwatching together. Also I have an older sister – she's 12 years older than me – and she was a teenager when I was a young kid. She seemed so cool and trendy, and I wanted to be like her in every way. So when she came birdwatching with us, it definitely made a massive different in terms of me sticking with it. She was my role model – if she was doing it, I was doing it.
When I got older, my mother was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, as I write about in my memoir, Birdgirl. Spending time with nature and birdwatching was what we turned to deal with that together, as a family. And it made me realise, emotionally but maybe not intellectually, how we were utilising birds and nature as a family. The thing with bipolar is it's so difficult to treat because of the nature of it.
It's so personal and individual to every single person who suffers with it. And so it took my mum was diagnosed maybe when I was about 10 and it took years to figure out the right balance of medication and the right ways that we, as a family, could deal with certain things. During my younger teens in particular, it was tumultuous – which is why those trips were so important. Now that my mum is much more stable, we still go on trips together – we went a couple of days ago, in fact – but it's less a necessity and more because it's something that we enjoy doing together.
The way you're describing how you practised birdwatching with your family when you were younger – as a fun, gamified activity– is it typically approached in a more rule-based, rigid way?
Oh, absolutely. Growing up, we were part of the very obsessive birding community – we still are. But it's true: when you get to a certain level of dedication to a hobby, people get very intense and weird about it. And there are lots of rules around ticking off new birds on your list and counting the number of birds you've seen – stuff like that.
My attitude has shifted over the years. When I was a kid, that actually appealed to me more: it was like treasure hunt. But, as I've gotten older, birdwatching has become a much quieter hobby. When I was a kid I loved all the running around and excitement, whereas now I enjoy the quiet moments it gives me in my life. Birdwatching is a mindful activity for me; it's a form of meditation.
I've also become less rigid in my approach through the work I do with my charity, Back to Nature, where I work with children. One of the big things [my team and I] have realised is that, for a lot of people, a rigid approach to engaging with nature and the outdoors just does not appeal, so it's about figuring out way to make it more enjoyable. Saying, you don't need to be in the countryside, you don't need binoculars, you don't even necessarily need to know what you're looking at. You can just enjoy nature, and that's all it needs to be.
What is it that makes birdwatching an inherently mindful activity?
Being outside in a green space is so good for your brain and your wellbeing in a way that a lot of us don't acknowledge. But also I think, when you're birdwatching, you can't be wrapped up in your thoughts – you just have to be there. You can't be having too much of a chat, you can't be listening to music, and you can't be on your phone, because you have to focus in order to spot things.
The climate crisis impacts everyone, but women and girls are bearing the brunt of it.
Since you've moved away for university, you've been birdwatching more often by yourself. How is that different to when you're with your family?
It's very different. Rather than family time it's more like meditative self-care. I'm also based in a city [Cambridge] for unversity, so that's different – it can be more the little things like going for a walk locally or setting up bird feeders in the garden.
As we spoke about, birdwatching has traditionally been regarded as a niche hobby. What might you say to GLAMOUR readers who might want to get into it – particularly as an antidote to a fast-paced, largely online lifestyle?
When you start looking, you realise that birds are so present in our everyday lives, living alongside us wherever we are, whether that's in the countryside or in the city. You can look out your window and you will see birds fly by. And they're beautiful, even the small brown ones are gorgeous if you give them a close look. You might not vibe with birdwatching the first time you do it, but I tell everyone to try it at least three times, to give it a chance.
If birdwatching doesn't appeal, there are so many different ways to engage with nature and the outdoors. And if someone thinks that nature isn't for them, or like going outside isn't for them, they probably just haven't found a hobby that appeals. Because I do think there's something deep inside us that is connected to nature; while it's easy to forget, we're animals too.
Being a young female activist can make you a target for bullying, for instance how Greta Thunberg was cyber bullied by Donald Trump. Is that something you've experienced yourself, and if so how do you navigate it?
Absolutely. It was probably at its peak when I was around 14 or 15. At one point, there was a lot of vile stuff, especially on Twitter. A lot of it was so objectively stupid that I thought, OK, I must be saying the right things. But, at the same time, the volume was insane – it made it unpleasant to even log on to my phone. There were periods where I wouldn't go on social media for a few weeks. Over time, I developed a thicker skin, and I'd also built up a supportive online community by that point. So it wasn't just me versus a billion nasty people online. Actually, the attitude around environmental campaigning and activism shifted massively when Greta Thunberg came onto the scene. People stopped going, Oh, little girls should sit down and stop having political opinions. So it's gotten better since I've got older – but I also just care less.
Do you regularly get scared about the future of the planet, and how do you keep that fear in check?
Yeah, objectively, it's terrifying. Especially when I got into environmental activism in the first place, I was really angry and scared. And I still am. But I think it's been… God, like 10 years now, actually. And it gets to a point where you can't sustain yourself on negative emotion anymore. Especially like anger, because you burn yourself out. I've seen so many people come and go over the years because they just exhaust themselves.
Something needs to change.
So, instead, I fuel myself on positive emotions, like the love that I have for nature and people and the planet and the outdoors. In particular, I try to be as optimistic as possible while still being realistic about the future because I do think that doomerism [a term to describe people who are extremely pessimistic or fatalistic about global problems like climate change] is one of the biggest threats to the planet right now. There was a BBC study a few years ago that found literally over 50% of people my generation already think the planet is doomed. If people have given up, then there's no reason to create change. So maintaining optimism and not letting fear overwhelm you is important.
How has the response to your books and your work in general surprised you over the past decade?
It's really lovely. There have been a few incredible moments over the last few years, like doing a panel with Emma Watson and Malala and Greta Thunberg at COP26 was incredible, especially because Emma Watson straight up went into my DMs on Instagram to ask me about it. It was crazy. Doing the protesting with Greenpeace out on the ice in the Arctic was another incredible moment. In terms of the books, one of the loveliest things actually has been, because I've written a couple of children's books as well as Birdgirl, and it has been a joy the past two or three years to just be able to interact with kids and tell them that they're capable; that their feelings do matter, and they can create change. Things can get better.
Finally, you've achieved so much at such a young age. I'm sure you're told that all the time, but you really have. What does downtime look like for you?
Oh, lots of things. I like, I don't know, going out on the, like going to the pub and having fun with my friends, I like chilling, I like dancing I don't know, I like music, I like going to festivals, all the, all this different stuff, I think sometimes people seem genuinely surprised when I, Kind of mention that I do the normal stuff that like any 21 year old would do but yeah, I'm still out there enjoying my life and also my degree which is last month.
Discover more about Dr. Mya-Rose Craig's work on her website, Birdgirluk.com.
