Jackie Fielder, a member of the Three Affiliated Tribes, is only 25, but she’s been pretty busy for the past few years. Fielder is an activist who has campaigned against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline; helped organize public banking efforts in San Francisco; and worked to defeat a city initiative that would loosen taser use for police in the Bay Area. She's also authored several pieces for Teen Vogue about her activist work.

Now, she’s adding another point to her résumé: running to represent San Francisco in the California state Senate. Teen Vogue caught up with Jackie to talk about how her environmental activism and her experience with homelessness are informing her campaign, and the inspiration she’s drawing from other young politicians.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Teen Vogue: Why are you running for Senate?

Jackie Fielder: California is my home state and we have 157 billionaires, while thousands of people sleep unhoused on the street. We spend $81,000 [per inmate each year] to incarcerate people, while classes are understaffed and teachers are struggling to make ends meet. Most recently, the fires that have ravaged the state from San Diego to the top of California speak to the inaction on climate change.

People like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York state Senator Julia Salazar — women and women of color — are challenging the concepts that you need to be a fully fledged member of the political circles and the donor circles in order to have what’s considered a serious candidacy.

TV: Let’s talk a little bit about your opponent, incumbent Scott Wiener. Why are you running against him?

JF: The incumbent takes a lot of money from real estate developers who are pushing the idea that the market will come to our rescue. As we saw in 2008, that is not the case whatsoever.

He is trying to push forward a lot of changes regarding regulations on how fast we can build housing. But why aren’t we talking about the great discrepancy between [billionaires] having several different houses around the world and thousands of people in California having zero homes?

(In a statement to Teen Vogue provided after publication, Wiener's office said he was proud to hold "one of the most progressive records in the entire legislature," working on bills "to reduce and ultimately end mass incarceration; to protect net neutrality in California; to expand housing near jobs and public transportation; to protect sex workers, transgender people in prison, LGBT seniors in long-term care facilities, and immigrants who report crimes," among other subjects. Wiener also touted his campaign's endorsements from Planned Parenthood and the California Democratic Party).

TV: I know that you’ve experienced homelessness in the Bay Area. What was that like?

JF: A few months this past year, and including now, I was couchsurfing, mainly for housing that is affordable and at my income level. I teach at [San Francisco State University] for some part of the year, but because I didn’t work there this past semester, I’ve had to work two full-time serving jobs to make ends meet. I’ve saved up some, but even then it’s not a lot. Sometimes I have to sleep in my van.

In California, if you don’t have a physical address, you can still register at a [street] intersection that you can “live” at. So I’m putting on my candidate filing papers an intersection where I’m registered to vote.