Marium Zahra is a high school junior at the Young Women's STEAM Research and Preparatory Academy in El Paso, Texas. Since 2022, she has worked as an independent journalist covering politics, education, culture and news. Her solutions-based work — seen in outlets including Yes! Magazine, The Progressive, PrismReports, The Nation, Business Insider, NPR, the Islamic Society of North America and more — has uplifted racial justice for marginalized students of color by discussing their struggles in the classroom and finding ways to combat them. Her reporting covers a range of areas, including youth in the criminal justice system, the importance of intersectionality in mental health discussions, microaggressions against Muslim students in the classroom, and curricula and censorship legislation that discriminates against students of color. Marium also has sought to advance racial equity within her community by working on more than 25 cases with the El Paso Municipal Teen Court Program as a defense attorney and juror for youth who commit misdemeanors. Through the program, she offers students, especially those of color from low socioeconomic backgrounds, an alternate path from the school-to-prison pipeline by promoting restorative justice.