Dallas Jessup

 

Dallas Jessup (17) knows how to change the world. She grew a community service project into the non-profit Just Yell Fire which has become a Million Girl Revolution across 42 countries. As a 13 year old black belt martial artist, Dallas learned the frightening statistics that 1 in 4 girls will be sexually assaulted and that there are 114,000 attempted abductions each year in the United States alone. She set out to create a home movie to teach her schoolmates at Portland's St. Mary's Academy High School some street fighting techniques to defend themselves. The word spread that a young girl was putting together an important film and in sixty days Dallas had a volunteer professional crew of 30, 100 volunteer extras, celebrity cameos by Josh Holloway and Evangeline Lilly, and $600,000 in donated resources. Thus came about the 46 minute film, Just Yell Fire. It teaches girls how to literally fight back against predators and sexual assault. Dallas put the film online for free download and raised the money to produce and ship free DVDs to girls without Internet access. The results? One million downloads in two years and multiple awards for the film including American Library Association Most Notable Video designation and Dallas was a Teen Choice Award nominee for her work. Her non-profit now lobbies for mandatory teen-safety programs in schools, trains teachers & coaches in Just Yell Fire techniques, presents seminars at schools, camps, crisis shelters and elsewhere. Just Yell Fire continues to offer the Just Yell Fire film for free download or free DVD for any girl, worldwide. Not content to rest on her accomplishments, Dallas Jessup travels an average of 10,000 miles a month speaking at high schools, colleges, law enforcement conferences, women's events, and crisis shelters across the U.S... She spent 2 weeks in rural India speaking at a dozen colleges on how to avoid slave traders for the sex trafficking industry. In addition to her duties as founder & spokesperson for Just Yell Fire, Dallas delivers keynote presentations calling for teen activism; her story provides the inspiration, her how-to strategies gives young people their own road map for changing the world. Awards: CNN Hero, Hall of Fame for Caring Americans, President's Youth Service Award, Points of Light Award, Elle Girl Teen Hero, Do Something Winner, Prudential Washington State Volunteer of Year, Caring Award, Huggable Hero, and others. Keynotes: First Teen Ever to Keynote at National MENSA Mtg., FBI National Academy, Amazing Women's Conference and others. Media Appearances: Good Morning America, Montel Williams Show, CNN, Today, FoxNews Live, People Magazine, USA Today, Teen Magazine, Seventeen Magazine plus local radio and television stations across the country. http://www.justyellfire.com

 

Awards:

Our Lady of Lourdes Citizenship Award 2005
St. Mary's Academy Leadership Scholarship Award 2005-2006
St. Mary's Academy Student Athlete Award 2006
Clark County Community Inspiration Award 2006
Soroptimist International North Portland Violet Richardson Award 2007
Prudential Spirit of Community Award 2007 - Washington State High School Volunteer of the Year
Soroptimist International of the Americas, Northwest Region Violet Richardson Award Winner
The President's Volunteer Service Award - 2007
Kohl's Kids Who Care Award - Store Level 2007
Charles Carroll "First Citizen" and Everyday Hero Awards
Honor Roll: The Gloria Baron Prize for Young Heroes 2007
CNN Hero
2008 Washington's 25 Most Beautiful People
Finalist, Volvo For Life Award 2008
Winner, Brick Award 2008
Caring Award 2008
Inducted into Frederick Douglas Hall of Fame for Caring Americans 2008
Build a Bear Huggable Hero 2008
Winner, Do Something Award 2008
2008 Elle Girl Teen Hero
2008 Teen Choice Award Nominee
11/25/2008 Daily Point of Light Award Winner

 

 

PageOneLit.com:  Where did you grow up and was reading and writing a part of your life? Who were your earliest influences and why? 

Dallas Jessup - I'm a fifth generation Californian, but we've lived in quite a few cities. My favorite though is Vancouver, Washington where I live now with my family on the Columbia River.

Writing and reading have been an important part of my life since the very first day of school when an exceptional teacher, Mrs. Dowling at the John Cooper School in The Woodlands, Texas started us writing journals and reading books. I've been doing both ever since.

 

 

PageOneLit.com: Why did you write Young Revolutionaries Who Rock? What was your motivation?

Dallas Jessup - I wrote Young Revolutionaries Who Rock because, as I travel about 100,000 miles a year with my Just Yell Fire project www.justyellfire.com, I meet kids everywhere who tell me they want to improve the world and they ask me how. The book is a how-to manual for them.

 

My motivation was based on the dozens of high-impact teens I've met who have grown their own community service projects into national and international organizations. While my Just Yell Fire www.justyellfire.comproject has gotten amazing attention and help from national media, celebrities like Evangeline Lilly, and sponsors like Google, some of these other projects just aren't getting the attention they need and deserve.

These kids are taking on Big Tobacco, fighting injustice, searching for cures and other important causes. I wanted to highlight their stories while sharing their tips for other kids who are ready to start their own revolution.

 

 

PageOneLit.com:  How do you want to change the world?

Dallas Jessup - By getting everyone to focus on one important thing and thus change everything. Most people don't realize the power they possess to effect change.

 

 

PageOneLit.com: You have met a lot of famous influential people from writing Young Revolutionaries Who Rock - Anyone that stands out as your favorite? And why?

Dallas Jessup – It's been a blast working with celebrities like Josh Holloway, Jonathan Jackson and the others who have helped with Just Yell Fire; the athletes like Peyton Manning and  Dominique Dawes were inspirational, and elected officials like Governor Ted Kulongoski and Attorney General Rob McKenna have been amazing. 

But the truly phenomenal people I've met are Young Revolutionaries like Jeremy Dias, www.jersvision.org who is stopping bullying and fighting prejudice across North America and the other big-impact teens featured in Young Revolutionaries Who Rock www.youngrevolutionarieswhorock.com as well as another fifty of whom I would have loved to include had there been room.

 

 

PageOneLit.com: In Young Revolutionaries Who Rock, you write that "Every Revolution starts with some kind of injustice." Explain. 

Dallas Jessup - Every revolution starts with just a few people; sometimes just one. Whether it's a handful of men dumping tea in a harbor in a revolution for freedom or an inspirational speaker calling on us to judge people by the content of their character; true revolutionaries are motivated to act by an injustice.

Throughout history, at some point one person gets angry at an injustice, stands up in opposition and speaks out. That makes all the difference and that is how revolutions get started. That's what Young Revolutionaries Who Rock is all about. www.youngrevolutionarieswhorock.com

 

 

PageOneLit.com: Young Revolutionaries Who Rock is original and very empowering -- For a teen reading this interview, please give an example or two how they can be a 'Revolutionary Who Rocks' before the day is over. 

Dallas Jessup - Thank you. Whether I'm talking to a few kids or a few thousand my question to them is always : What makes you angry? Everyone's answer is different. For some it is companies polluting our air or water; for others it is children going to bed hungry or people being denied medical care because treatment is too expensive.

All you have to do is turn on the news and you can see 50 projects that need starting. So the first step to becoming a Young Revolutionary is to decide what makes you angry. That's your project. I got angry that predators were preying upon the weakest members of our society; two years later I was part of a Million Girl Revolution. Step One: Get Angry, Step Two: Get Active.

 

PageOneLit.com:  What did you learn from writing Young Revolutionaries Who Rock? 

Dallas Jessup - Two things, the power of language to motivate people to take action as well as how to recognize and appreciate the work other people do and the reasons they do it.

 

PageOneLit.com:  What do you hope to achieve with Young Revolutionaries Who Rock?

Dallas Jessup – I hope it will lead to an improved and more socially aware society; particularly among youth. I'd like to see a new attitude toward teens; we're part of a generation who cares and does something.

 

PageOneLit.com:   What's next?

 

Dallas Jessup - College. I'm getting to talk with great people from some terrific universities so it will be a really hard choice. 

For Just Yell Fire www.justyellfire.com, we've connected with 1 million girls in just a couple of years but my next goal for the organization is to protect 5 million girls aged 11 to 19 from predators and sexual assault by 2010. I've started speaking internationally to speed up the process; this summer I spent two weeks speaking at a dozen colleges in rural India to teach girls about the slave traders in the sex trafficking industry and to give them stay-safe strategies.

 

 

PageOneLit.com:  What was the last book you read? 

Dallas Jessup – A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by: Ishamael Beah

 

 

PageOneLit.com:   Do you have any hobbies? What are they? How do they enhance your writing? 

My travel/school schedule is a little tough so I don't have much time for hobbies but I get pretty wrapped up in school activities like Mock Trial and the St. Mary's Academy school newspaper; but also just hanging out with friends. What I've learned is that if you take the time to notice what's going on around you there is always something to write about. There are compelling moments everywhere – you just have to look at the world without seeing yourself as the center.