Question 1: What advice would you give other millennials thinking of running for office?

SL: Yeah, I would tell millennials to just do it. The best way to learn how to run, how to serve, how to govern, is to just get in there and go. And there are gonna be a lot of things—a lot of boundaries—but we are a feisty group of people. We are accustomed to taking down walls, so we’re built for this. But I would just say: Do it. Lean on the things that you know how to do. If you don’t have the same social capital as an incumbent, as the establishment, that’s fine, because you have other ways around it. You know how to use social media, you know how to leverage your own network. So I think that work what you have, and go, because your perspective is so important.

Question 2: How do we end the school-to-prison pipeline?

SL: By valuing children and investing in children instead of investing in prisons. That’s a simple one. What we invest in this country—whether it’s education or health care—determines the future of this country. Right now, we are not investing in children. When you look at our educational spending, especially in my state, it’s low. It’s abysmal. But when you look at our prison spending, there are a group of people, the 1%, corporations, who rely on our kids going to prison. So we end the school-to-prison pipeline by ending capitalism. And that’s just the real answer!

Question 3: Who is an activist or organizer that inspires you and why?

SL: I think that my answer’s almost always the same. My favorite activist is the unknown person, usually, who has everything to lose, who is out there because it’s their community, because it’s their issue, because it’s their family, and they’re fighting with everything that they have. They’re not always the one who gets the blue check. They’re not always the one who becomes famous, gets interviews on TV. But there are so many young people, high school students, college students, who I see out fighting every single day. And they won’t get the recognition that they need, but they are absolutely driving our country forward.

Bonus Question: If you could give advice to your teenage self, what would it be?

SL: I would say … Don’t shut up. Everybody told me to shut up! I got talkative a lot. I would say: Teenage Summer, don’t shut up! You have something to say. Eventually, people will listen to it. That’s my thing. I think that I knew as a teenager that I wanted to do this work. I wasn’t sure that I was good enough to do it. I wasn’t sure that I was smart enough. But I know now that I was, and I was on the right track, so I would just say, keep going, keep talking, keep screaming. Keep defying authority. That’s your thing, you love doing that. Keep defying authority, Summer!