2024
Edinburgh
Alanis McQuillen
- Gender equality
- Politics/representation
Age: 19
Location: Glasgow
Pronouns: she/her
Beau Johnston has dedicated her life to amplifying children and young people’s voices, drawing on her own lived experience of having a brain tumour since the age of two. She is a fierce advocate for increased education on childhood cancer signs and symptoms and wider human rights.
In November 2024, she sang live in the BBC One Children in Need Choir, raising funds and awareness for young people facing illness. This has all been inspired by the tireless campaigning of her mother, Emma Johnston.
Beau’s influence as a member and trustee of Scottish Youth Parliament has reached international levels; as part of Team Scotland UN, she gave evidence to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva, playing a pivotal role in campaigning for the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024. She has helped evaluate community-based mental health services in partnership with the Scottish Government, ensuring investment meets the needs of children, young people and families.
She has also contributed to parliamentary evidence sessions on education reform, advocating for a more inclusive system that supports. all young people. Finally, Beau recently delivered a speech to Scottish Government’s most senior civil servants about approaches to tackling the violence epidemic as part of SYP’s “End Gender-based Violence” campaign planning group.
Outside of her advocacy, Beau is a dancer and is the front woman of an indie rock band called Low Tide, writing songs that touch upon her experiences as a young woman in a world where it is increasingly terrifying to be young woman. She is also currently studying Law and French at the University of Glasgow and is on her year abroad at Sciences Po, Paris.