Mya-Rose Craig, otherwise known as Birdgirl, is a British-Bangladeshi birder, environmentalist and diversity activist. She is the founder of Black2Nature, a charity dedicated to introducing young children to the natural world, and is currently studying at Cambridge University. At the age of 17, she became the youngest person to have spotted half of the world’s bird species.
Q. Why do you feel passionately about young people spending time outdoors?
That relationship with nature and the outdoors is super-important. It’s how you get people to engage with issues like biodiversity loss, which is such a massive issue in the UK. Having the ability to spend time in the outdoors should be a right, and it’s so incredibly important for our wellbeing. In an age where the NHS is actually prescribing people to spend time in green spaces, we really should be encouraging more people to venture out. Also, the countryside and nature are really fun!
Q. You work with people from VME (Visible Minority Ethnic) backgrounds. Is progress being made in terms of equal access to the outdoors?
I founded Black2Nature nearly 8 years ago and things have shifted massively since then. There’s a completely different attitude to the issue. During the pandemic you had lots of organisations within the nature space acknowledge that they should be doing something to help. But there’s still a very long way to go, partially because this issue of opportunity and diversity is very systemic. It’s linked to a lot of other things, like class and jobs and money. It’s so important to focus on letting people explore, especially during a cost of living crisis. It’s not something that should be reserved for the middle classes.
Q. You’ve had a lifelong love of birds. Why do they bring you so much joy?
There’s something about watching them flying around that really elicits something in me. When I was a kid, my parents were great about going on really exciting walks and treasure hunts, so when I was a kid I really associated that adrenaline with birds. As I’ve got older it’s become a more peaceful thing. Over lockdown I went from seeing exciting tropical species to spending a lot of time in my garden. I was deeply invested in the blackbird fledgling in our hedge. Birds are such a great piece of nature to connect with, because no matter where you are, even in the middle of a city, there are birds around. I really love that. I do bird-ringing and I’ve fallen in love with wrens. They’re really beautiful, they have so much character and they’re so loud! I hear people saying British wildlife is boring, but there’s so much amazing stuff once you start looking.
Q. What do you hope readers will get from your book, Birdgirl?
The best feedback I get is from people who say ‘I’d like to try birdwatching now’ — that’s always very cool. But the book talks a lot about activism, and also how nature and wellbeing are super-tied together, so if a younger person became inspired to try and make the world a slightly better place that would also be incredible. But for me the core thread of the book is a very honest conversation around mental health. I talk about my mum being very unwell with bipolar disorder and how the family used nature to cope with that — it’s a warts-and-all story that shows the good and bad, so I hope that’s helpful for other people out there. My mum always said she never saw any stories out there reflecting anything she might be going through.
Q. Last year you were on a COP26 panel with Greta Thunberg and Malala Yousafzai — how was that?
It was a very exciting moment. Greta’s just such a cool, down-to-earth person. I always try and maintain hope, I think that’s really important, so after meeting other young activists and seeing what they were doing and how much they care, I came away feeling really good about all that. The BBC did a study a year or two ago saying that over half the people my age weren’t feeling hopeful about the future, or felt disenfranchised, so anything that encourages more young people to get involved, to meet others who care and to try and make a difference, is so important.
Birdgirl (Vintage Publishing) is out now.
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