This 22-year-old started a fashion line to fight human trafficking.

Noor Tagouri has always been one for ambitious goals. This is no different.

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Human trafficking is a global problem affecting thousands of men, women, and children each year.

Trafficking is, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the illegal transportation of a person (an abduction, basically) — most often for the purposes of nonconsensual sex work or forced labor. Every year, thousands of individuals are tragically torn from their families, falling victim to this awful act.

Playing cards featuring the faces of missing Chinese children and suspected victims of human trafficking. Photo by China Photos/Getty Images.

While there's lots of attention brought to the issue in the form of traditional fundraisers and ad campaigns, a 22-year-old journalist had a different idea.

Noor Tagouri is best known for her presence on social media where she has a following of more than 200,000 people with the goal of becoming the first hijabi news anchor in America. But now, in the name of drawing attention to human trafficking, she's taken on a new role: fashion mogul.

Tagouri teamed up with Adam Khafif at Lis'n Up Clothing (LSNP) to create a fashion line that both informs the public and helps fund the fight against human trafficking. They call it "The Noor Effect."

Image via Business Insider.

The design features the word "Girl" crossed out and backwards in a nod to one of Tagouri's favorite artists.

The idea was inspired by a quote from artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, and it's pretty genius.

Image via Business Insider.

Basquiat's artwork is known for the distortion of the words and images he paints. It's the type of art you could stare at for hours at a time and still miss something that's staring you right in the face. 

That's how Tagouri feels we too often treat human trafficking.

Tagouri and Khafif are donating half of all proceeds to Project Futures, an anti-human trafficking charity.

Project Futures is a charity whose goal is to help fund prevention efforts, offer support services, and empower victims of trafficking. They've been working at it for more than five years, raising more than $2 million in the process. With any luck, Tagouri will help them go even further in pushing their goal of putting an end to human trafficking.

Next time you see an obscured word, take a moment to really look at it. Maybe there's an important message hiding in plain sight.

Image via Business Insider.

To learn more about Tagouri and Khafif's fashion line, check out this video from Business Insider.

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Original video from Business Insider.

Australia wanted tourists to forget climate change is a thing. It backfired.

Climate denial doesn't look good on you, Australia.

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It's difficult to overstate the amazingness of the Great Barrier Reef.

Photo by HO/AFP/Getty Images.

Thousands of sea creatures and an array of colorful coral types call this natural Australian wonder home.

Like this curious little fella.

Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images.

So it makes sense that tourists are drawn from across the globe to see the reef — the largest structure created by living organisms on Earth.

Photo by Adam Pretty/ALLSPORT/Getty Images.

Great Barrier Reef tourism pours billions of dollars into Australia, so keeping travelers interested in its pristine sights is a pretty big priority Down Under.

Photo by Eddie Safarik/Tourism Queensland via Getty Images.

Unfortunately, the Australian government was willing to sweep a catastrophic problem facing the reef under the rug in order to keep this booming industry afloat.

Climate change has already caused "serious and lasting damage" to a sizable portion of the reef, with coral bleaching — a process caused by temperature influx that calcifies and potentially kills coral — destroying as much as 35% of the reef in certain regions, a new report found.

Climate change is devastating the Great Barrier Reef, this "smoking gun" analysis shows: https://t.co/b114ZruCb4 http://pic.twitter.com/8sNIOK61eF— John Upton (@johnupton) April 28, 2016

But Aussie officials would rather not remind the public of these grave threats if it means their tourism numbers might drop.

According to The New York Times, the Australian government requested that UNESCO and the United Nations Environment Program remove the Great Barrier Reef from the (not-so-great) findings of a new environmental report, "World Heritage and Tourism in a Changing Climate."

The UN and UNESCO complied.

Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images.

In fact, all mentions of any habitats in Australia — including Kakadu National Park and the Tasmanian forests — were nixed from the report, according to The Guardian.

“Australia is the only inhabited continent that is not featured in the report,” professor Will Steffen of the Climate Change Institute at Australian National University told The New York Times. “Information is the currency of democracy, and the idea that government officials would exert pressure to censor scientific information on our greatest national treasure is extremely disturbing.”

Protesters urge more action to protect the Great Barrier Reef. Photo by Greg Wood/AFP/Getty Images.

Australia has to have some justifiable reason for pressuring the UN into quietly leaving it out of the report, though ... right?

Wrong.

The country's Department of the Environment told The Guardian that an earlier working title of the report — "Destinations at Risk: World Heritage and Tourism in a Changing Climate" — would cause "considerable confusion" to the public in regards to the real dangers facing the reef.

It also argued the report would promote “negative commentary" on the reef and affect tourism. Which, OK, that might be true, but should one country's revenue from tourism really be a consideration for the United Nations Environment Program? Like ... at all?

Yeaah, the Internet doesn't think so either.

Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images.

Australia's attempt to downplay the threats of a warming planet illustrates why fighting climate change can be such an uphill battle.

Curbing global temperatures isn't easy. Shifting energy sources, establishing new protective regulations, fighting back against the interests of the world's wealthiest corporations, and, yes, sometimes allowing some damning reports to be published if it means spurring positive change — that's really tough stuff.

But if Australia wants to keep its tourist-magnet flourishing tomorrow, it needs to take on a dire reality facing its waters today.

Photo by William West/AFP/Getty Images.

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Thumbnail photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images.

How subtle, clever architectural decisions can help people living with dementia.

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Sit down, close your eyes, and try to remember how you got to where you are.

How easy is it for you to visualize the path you took today? How did you remember where to go? Maybe you know to always turn at an important landmark — the tree your mom planted, for example. Maybe there was a sign telling you the right direction.

Photo from iStock.

For people living with dementia, these navigational clues can be hard to read.

According to the Alzheimer's Association, about 5 million Americans live with some form of dementia. Dementia isn't a single disease — rather, it's a broad category of cognitive and neurological symptoms. The most common cause of dementia is Alzheimer's disease, but there are many others, including strokes or Parkinson's disease.

Dementia can interfere with many of the brain's mental processes, including spatial memory — the part of the brain that deals with navigation. This is why many people living with dementia may sometimes find it hard to get around, even in familiar places.

Part of our ability to navigate lies in the hippocampus; dementia can interfere with processes in this region. Image from Henry Gray/Wikimedia Commons.

Getting lost can be especially dangerous for people who live with advanced forms of dementia — it can mean forgetting how to get home and being exposed to the cold or rain or running into dangerous situations like wandering across a highway.

A possible solution for this problem lies in the designs of the very buildings we live in.

Woodside Place is an assisted-living community in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that was built by Presbyterian SeniorCare in 1991.

Photo by Presbyterian SeniorCare, used with permission.

Though not as common today, in the 1980s, many facilities used physical or chemical restraints to prevent their residents from moving around.

Woodside, on the other hand, was specifically built and decorated to accommodate the natural wandering tendencies of people living with dementia.

Clever design decisions — like the use of color — help reinforce and strengthen the residents' spatial memory.

Many care spaces are designed like hospitals, fairly sterile and visually repetitive, white hallway after white hallway. By making the space more colorful, Woodside provides a quick intuitive reminder for residents to identify where they are.

Photo by Presbyterian SeniorCare, used with permission.

At Woodside, even the staff's uniforms are color-coded based on which wing they work in.

"[Patients] may not remember my name, but they remember she's green, she belongs to me," Carrie Chiusano, executive director of Presbyterian SeniorCare's dementia care center, explained.

Staff uniforms are color-coded. Photo by Presbyterian SeniorCare, used with permission.

Another strategy Woodside uses is to have decorations and signs that are meaningful and packed with emotional relevance.

Outside Woodside's green treehouse-themed wing is a large tree decoration. These cueing devices are more than just props; they serve as subtle visual reminders and landmarks for residents.

Woodside has also invested in signs and decorations that have personal significance to the residents. For example, many residents have decorated their doors and living spaces with photographs of themselves, family, and friends, so that they can more easily identify which room is theirs.

This can apply to more than just personal pictures; it can apply to meaningful symbols as well. Mary O'Malley, a Ph.D. student at Bournemouth University in England, told Upworthy of a care facility she visited where one area was decorated with generic pictures of water lilies and another was decorated with a painting of the city's history.

Water lilies vs. New York City. Which means more to you? Images from iStock.

Though the lilies were very pretty, O'Malley said the residents' emotional connection with their home city ultimately seemed to be a more useful navigation tool.

Researchers like O'Malley are constantly looking for ways to design living spaces specifically for people living with dementia.

Along with her supervisors, O'Malley is studying how people learn and remember routes and directions. She's taking a multidisciplinary approach, using psychology, neuroscience, sociology, and perhaps most importantly, direct conversations and feedback from people living with dementia.

Mary O'Malley conducting research at Bournemouth University. Photo from Philip Hartley/Bournemouth University.

O'Malley is interested in what type of spatial memory is most susceptible to memory loss.

For instance, we know that most older adults seem to work better with landmarks ("head toward the church") rather than plain directions ("turn right at the church"). O'Malley wants to see if this pattern holds true in people living with dementia as well. She's also studying the way our brains read maps to see if maps can be more user-friendly.

As we learn more about these designs, we can incorporate them not just into care facilities and hospitals, but into community spaces too.

While care facilities can be designed for residents with specific needs, it's estimated that about 60% of people living with Alzheimer's live within the larger community, rather than in assisted-living facilities.

"If you want to support people so that they remain in the community, then you should be making these changes to the community," O'Malley said.

These design decisions, such as the use of visual reinforcement and meaningful decoration, could be easily incorporated into the spaces we see around us every day. Next time you find yourself stuck trying to navigate, think about all the little visual cues you take for granted and how easy it would be to make them better for everyone.

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17 women who'd make an awesome James Bond.

Gillian Anderson and Emilia Clarke are into it.

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It's Bond. James Bond.

Beloved fictional British spy James Bond has been saving the world for more than half a century, and while there's been some change (he's been played by seven different actors over more than 20 films), at its core, the Bond character continues to resemble the spy originally crafted by novelist Ian Fleming.

Photo by Greg Williams/Eon Productions via Getty Images.

Recently, there's been a push to cast a woman in the role of 007, and at least two actresses are totally on board with the idea.

Gillian Anderson of "X-Files" fame and Emilia Clarke from "Game of Thrones" have both tossed their hats into the ring to replace Daniel Craig, the current Bond.

It started when Anderson answered a question on Tumblr: "What is the best rumor you've ever heard about yourself?" with "That I might be the next Bond." Since then, fans have been coming out of the woodwork to support the idea of Agent Scully stepping into the role.

Craig, who reprised the role for the fourth time in l "Spectre," is totally cool with the concept of having a woman play the role, saying, "I think it’s a great idea. If it works it works. That’s the great thing about film is it’s all about imagination so of course it could happen. Not that’s it a huge push, it’s just that anything’s possible."

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Here's a look at 17 badass women in Hollywood who'd probably do a pretty awesome job as James — er, Jane Bond.

1. Gillian Anderson

"The X-Files," "Hannibal," and "The Fall" feature the versatile actress playing complex (and badass) characters. Without a doubt, she'd be an awesome Bond.

Photo by Ari Perilstein/Getty Images for The Weinstein Company.

2. Emilia Clarke

Not only does Clarke play Daenerys Targaryen on "Game of Thrones" (which, honestly, would have been enough reason to put her on the list), but she also flexed her action-star muscles a bit playing Sarah Connor in 2015's "Terminator Genisys."

Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images.

3. Zoe Saldana

She certainly held her own in "Avatar," "Star Trek," and "Guardians of the Galaxy." Who's to say she wouldn't make an awesome Bond?

Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images.

4. Lucy Liu

Currently starring as Dr. Joan Watson on "Elementary," Liu is the very model of how seamless a gender-swapped character can work into a storyline. Add in the fact that she's been in films like "Charlie's Angels" and "Kill Bill," and she'd totally do a great job as Bond.

Photo by Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images.

5. Angelina Jolie

Not only has she starred in action roles like "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," "Salt," and "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," but she's also a UN Special Envoy of the High Commissioner for Refugees. Action chops and diplomatic experience? Perfect.

Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images.

6. Serena Williams

OK, so, Serena Williams isn't really known as an actress (though she did pick up a screen credit in Beyoncé's "Lemonade" video, so that should count as like half a dozen regular roles, right?), but admit it, you'd totally want to see a James Bond movie starring the tennis legend, right?

Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images.

7. Michelle Rodriguez

Star of the "Fast & Furious" franchise, Rodriguez has shown she can hold her own when it comes to anchoring an action sequence. She's been outspoken about her desire to see better roles for women in action movies for a while now. You can imagine what she'd be capable of with Bond's license to kill.

Photo by Samir Hussein/Getty Images for Avakian.

8. Robin Wright

Robin Wright probably isn't the first name to come to mind when you think of a future James Bond, but her role as Claire Underwood on "House of Cards" makes her a force to be reckoned with.

Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images.

9. Kerry Washington

James Bond is basically Olivia Pope — except for all the shooting and the ... OK, so, Bond and Pope don't have that much in common, but Kerry Washington can basically do anything, so I wouldn't count her out.

Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for the DAILY FRONT ROW.

10. Ming-Na Wen

You probably know Ming-Na Wen from her role as Melinda May on Marvel's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." And if you do, you know that she's part of some of the most badass fight scenes to ever appear on TV and has a killer high kick that you would not want to be on the receiving end of.

Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images.

11. Tatiana Maslany

Tatiana Maslany is the star of "Orphan Black," where she plays a half a dozen or so characters, each more complex than the last. If you're looking for someone who can bring something new and fresh to a storied franchise like James Bond, Maslany's a solid choice.

Photo by Gabriel Olsen/Getty Images for GLAAD.

12. Rosario Dawson

Yes, it's been more than a decade since Dawson was tearing things up in "Sin City," but that doesn't mean she's lost her edge. Popping up in Marvel properties like "Jessica Jones," "Daredevil," and the upcoming "Luke Cage" series, Dawson's still got it.

Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images.

13. Charlize Theron

It's Furiosa. Imperator Furiosa. Seriously, not only should Theron do as many action flicks as possible (please do another "Mad Max" — please), but she could 100% rock the role of James Bond, mixing sophistication with all-around badassery.

Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images.

14. Lynda Carter

She doesn't act all that much anymore, but Lynda Carter (aka Wonder Woman) could make a monster comeback by picking up the role of MI6's finest.

Photo by Rachel Murray/Getty Images for Alliance for Women in Media.

15. Beyoncé

Let's forget that Queen Bey was in that 2002 Austin Powers movie. Let's just forget that. OK? That was forever ago, before she harnessed the superpower that is being Beyoncé. You saw her kicking ass in the "Lemonade" video. She's a natural for this role.

Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images.

16. Jessica Alba

With action and adventure credits that include "Dark Angel," "Sin City," and "Fantastic Four," Jessica Alba has a resume that'd make just about any casting director drool. Now imagine her as James Bond.

Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images.

17. Lucy Lawless

If for no other reason than the fact that she played "Xena: Warrior Princess," Lucy Lawless would be warmly welcomed back into action roles. Lawless. Lucy Lawless.

Photo by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for SiriusXM.

Will the next Bond be a woman from this list? Probably not. Even so, it's fun to think about.

And beyond that, it's great that this is even an idea that's being entertained outside the realm of fan fiction. Are there more pressing gender-related issues to worry about in Hollywood? Sure. Wage inequality and representation both in front of and behind the cameras could use some major work. Does that make dreaming up a gender-swapped James Bond any less entertaining? Nah.

May the next James Bond — whoever they may be — lead the franchise in exciting new directions.

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They saw refugees sleeping in tents. So they made them a home.

Thousands of refugees got stuck in Athens, but anarchists came to their rescue.

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When Germany opened its borders to refugees during the summer of 2015, the flow of migrants moving through Athens turned to a flood.

Hundreds of thousands of people — mostly Syrians — passed through the city, usually leaving in a few days or weeks. Then, in March, the borders closed.

Now, around 10,000 people are stuck in Athens, unable to continue their journeys. Some live in hotels, but most have run out of money. They sleep in tents at the port, at an abandoned airport outside the city, or sometimes even on the street.

But in one of Athens’ bohemian neighborhoods, Exarchia, activists and artists have decided to help, using a resource they have plenty of: empty buildings.

“Squats” in Athens date back to the late '80s, when anarchists began setting up communal homes in abandoned buildings. They've since become something of a Greek tradition, accompanied by a community of people who know which buildings you can occupy without getting kicked out and how to set up electricity and plumbing.

Abeer, 40, arrived in Greece two months ago. Half of her family is in Leipzig, Germany. Here, she teaches refugee children English in a squat. Photo by Marcos Andronicou, used with permission.

Each squat is run by its own assembly, which usually makes decisions by consensus. They share a left-wing outlook and an anti-fascist attitude (something that means a lot in a country where a real fascist party, Golden Dawn, holds seats in parliament!)

In January 2016, when the borders began to close and more people were trapped, Athenians set up these squats to take in refugees.

The economic collapse of 2009 left more buildings available, so the first building to be occupied in 2016 was a former government building on Notara Street.

Activists cleaned up debris, fixed some plumbing, and welcomed the refugees most in need: families. The building now houses about 130 people, most of them women and children. In a classroom downstairs, children’s pictures show scenes of war and hopeful images of their future homes, and a big whiteboard shows a chart for the week’s chores. In a kitchen upstairs, a group of women are preparing food for the next meal while one floor up, men install another shower.

“Greeks have been refugees in many places,” said Phevos Simeonides, a young Athenian who’s involved with a bunch of different squats. “So even though there are some who are hostile to refugees, most have an instinct for solidarity with them.”

The founder of one squat feels this solidarity especially strongly: He’s Syrian himself.

Kastro Preta Dakduk, a painter, came to Greece 28 years ago from Syria. When the refugee crisis hit last summer, Kastro worked on the islands and in the port of Piraeus. At the makeshift camp at the port, he saw people with no money and no place to go, living in tents. Then he heard about an old school that had been abandoned for two years.

Children play in the formerly abandoned high school in central Athens, which has been transformed into a refugee hosting center by an autonomous group of volunteers and activists. Photo by Marcos Andronicou, used with permission.

“In Syria, where fights and war were happening, the schools were open for all the people to find a shelter,” he said.

So they chose this school to set up in. Squats are technically illegal — they usually haven’t done paperwork and don’t pay rent. But the Greek government generally leaves them alone because it’s so overwhelmed with refugees that they’re glad to have the help.

“We asked the municipal government about the school,” he said, “and they said no. We said, 'Thank you very much,' and the next day we came here.”

The four-story school was one of the biggest buildings in the city, and getting it ready for the refugees took a lot of hard work.

The water was on when they moved in, but the sewage line wasn’t connected, so for days they couldn’t use the showers or toilets and had to move porta-potties into the yard. But now the squat is working at full capacity, with 350 people living there, including 150 children.

One of the mottos of the squats is “self-organization,” which means that instead of taking orders from Greek organizers, residents do most of their own work.

This is important because it means that refugees get the chance to use their skills and training again.

Hamd, a 26-year-old from Damascus, has a degree in hotel management. As soon as he got to the school, he started working in the kitchen. At first, there was no working oven and few supplies, but piece by piece, he and Kastro got the equipment they needed.

Now the kitchen has six seatings a day, with a morning, afternoon, and night shift, and it goes through 22 kilograms of rice per meal, just for starters. When I was there, dinner was spicy chicken with rice and salad.

“Greeks have been refugees in many places.”

Hamd’s friend Hussein works in information technology in Syria, and at the school, he’s working to set up the Wi-Fi network. There’s even a security detail: three patrols per night with two people each to look out for smugglers or drug dealers.

The school building has come back to life – and it has turned back into a school, too.

Fatima, who was an Arabic teacher in Syria, teaches class every day from 5-7 p.m., and volunteers teach English classes as well. With little space inside, classes are often held in the courtyard, where students sit in neat rows, taking notes.

Abeer teaches Syrian, Afghan, and Iraqi children. She has Palestinian heritage but was born and grew up in Damascus. Photo by Marcos Andronicou, used with permission.

Other times it looks like recess, with younger kids running around and older ones playing basketball or leaning up against the wall and talking.

It’s still far from perfect. It’s hot and crowded, and few of the refugees know when, or if, they can get to Western Europe. But for now, the school is a welcome refuge.

“In other camps, it’s very bad,” Hamd told me. “No electricity, nothing. In this place, we can feel safe.”

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Thumbnail photo by Marcos Andronicou, used with permission.

How one woman went from art classes with her kids to coordinating over 100 artisans.

By uniting, these artisans give each other a chance to make a living.

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The first time Hema Balakrishnan started working with clay in a course taken with her kids — she knew it would lead her somewhere.

But where? Making a livelihood as a terra cotta artisan — transforming riverbed clay into colorful jewelry — was next to impossible. Freelance jewelers in her community would sometimes have to wait 40 days to be paid for their products.

All images via Facebook's #SheMeansBusiness campaign, used with permission.

That's more than a month before seeing cash flow.

Hema reached out to other artisans and found they all were experiencing the same problem.

She also knew there had to be a better way. A stronger business solution.

So she did it herself.

On her own, Hema connected with 11 separate terra cotta artisan groups — 200 terra cotta artisans total — and coordinated these groups to make feasible career options for the artisans.

The business is thriving.

As she was starting out, things weren't exactly all cheers and support.

"My in-laws were not in favor of me going to work," she told 99% TV Telugu,"so it was a sort of forced staying at home, which made me interested in pursuing lot of courses. So that's what made me interested in pursuing the clay course with my children."

But she didn't give up. This business was her calling.

As Hema told 99% TV Telugu, "Perhaps they thought this was a hobby or something that I would sit from home and do. This is something beyond a personal gain for me. This is something I want to do from the core of my being. It's an inner calling for me."

Many of the women who do the meticulous work of creating terra cotta jewelry are in the field for the love of the craft but also to support their families. Families don't have 40 days to wait for payment. So Hema got involved in all aspects of production of the jewelry to create a system where a livelihood for women artisans was possible. She knew that by pursuing her business, Color D Earth, she would not just be helping herself grow, she'd be empowering others.

"When this business is giving livelihood to so many terra cotta artisans, it gives me great happiness."

Using Facebook to not just sell products, but to promote the social good of her business, Hema has seen her customer base grow. As she told the Facebook #SheMeansBusiness initiative, "The story mattered, and the best way to communicate that story, aside from just speaking about it, was to use the internet."

And she's not stopping there.

After reflecting on all that she has learned in growing Color D Earth, Hema knew she wanted to pay it forward. Now, in addition to running this business, she offers mentorship workshops and coaching to women looking to start their own enterprises.

From a love of clay, she's created a business infrastructure that gives that love back to her community.

And it all started with her following her instincts, listening to her gut, and sticking to it.

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Video from Facebook's #SheMeansBusiness campaign. For more on Hema's terra cotta business, Color D Earth, you can find them on Facebook.