History's Youngest Heroes: Trailer

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When you're young, it feels like anything is possible.

Maybe you're a little hot-headed, but your optimism lifts you up.

And your righteous fury can be rocket fuel, propelling you to fight for what's right.

You might make choices that put you in danger.

You might even make history.

I'm Nicola Cochlin, and for BBC Radio 4, this is history's youngest heroes.

Rebellion, risk, and the radical power of youth.

Being young, maybe she didn't think too much.

She thought, right, I'll just do it.

She thought about others rather than herself.

12 stories of extraordinary young people from across history.

There's a real sense of urgency in them.

That resistance has to be mounted, it has to be mounted now.

Including a young man called Nelson Mandela, a firebrand who led the Defiance campaign against apartheid.

Break segregation laws, ignore curfews, enter the door for white people at the post office, stand on the white side of the platform at the train station, and it's decided that black people are going to do this en masse.

And Lakshmi Bai, the Rani of Jhansi, India's warrior queen.

She was a small woman, leading her troops astride a horse, sword in each hand, taking on the might of the entire British Empire.

History is lit up by young people who act on instinct and stick to their principles.

Like Julian of Narwich, one of the first women to write in the English language.

A trailblazer, but at a cost.

Why would somebody choose to have themselves blocked up into a tiny little cell with limited contact with the outside world out of choice?

And Lady Jane Grey, queen for nine days.

who refused to give up her faith and chose to face the executioner's axe.

You have someone who is knowingly risking death and then ultimately knowingly taking death because there is something that matters more to them than their life itself and that's a fundamentally heroic position.

These are tales of saints, athletes, Hollywood superstars and pioneers.

Some heroes are household names.

Some have been all but forgotten.

Like Vasily Arkhipov, a Soviet naval officer whose extraordinary courage helped save the world from nuclear catastrophe.

Who are sticking to your guns on that submarine in that heat, that takes gods.

That really takes gods.

History made by young people.

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Whatever your color, bring happiness home with CertaPro Painters.

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