Changing the world: meet five young people who are trying to make a difference in the world.

• Author: Potenza, Alessandra
• Position: Cover story

Millennials (people born between 1980 and the mid-2000s) are often accused of being lazy and self-absorbed--and doing little more than checking Instagram, snapping selfies, or playing video games. But we didn't have to look very far to find teens and 20-somethings devoting their time and energy to more important causes. With this new annual Upfront series, we want you to meet five inspiring young people who are working to make the world a better place.

Watch a video on Lauren Singer at upfrontmagazine.com

Mihir Garimella

Inventing a life-saving drone

Age: 16 *

From: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Drones have gotten a lot of attention lately, often for killing terrorists in places like Pakistan and Yemen. Thanks to Mihlr Garimella, we could soon be hearing about another use for drones: saving lives.

The 16-year-old junior at Chapel Area High School in Pittsburgh Is working on a "flying robot" that can autonomously carry out search-and-rescue operations, detect the source of fires, and even find people trapped inside collapsed buildings. Garimella is trying to keep the cost of his drone, which flies itself and can escape moving obstacles like falling ceilings, at about $250. That's much lower than traditional search-and-rescue drones, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars and need an experienced pilot to operate them. Because of the low cost, his invention could exponentially increase the use of drones in emergency situations, especially in developing countries.

Garimella's eureka moment came in 2013, when he went on a family trip to India, where his parents were born, and unintentionally left a bunch of bananas in the kitchen. When he came back, the house was swarming with fruit flies. Inspired by the tiny insects' ability to escape swatters, he outfitted a drone with sensors that detect movement and programmed it to buzz in the opposite direction of moving objects. A prototype of the drone recently won him awards at the Google Science Fair and the Intel Science and Engineering Fair.

Now, when he's not doing homework, Garimella works in his room perfecting the technology--like heat sensors and face-recognition software--to locate trapped victims.

"Making an impact is something that really matters to me," Garimella says. "Trying to develop a product that can be used by people in developing countries is one way to make an impact."

Lauren Singer

Living waste-free

Age: 24 * From: New York City

The average American produces more than 4 pounds of trash every day--nearly double the amount in 1960--and that garbage is doing great damage to the environment. But Lauren Singer is proving it doesn't have to be that way: She can fit three years' worth of her trash into a 16-ounce Mason jar.

To live almost trash-free, the 24-year-old buys package-free food, composts food scraps, wears secondhand clothes, and makes her own toothpaste and deodorant. What about toilet paper, you wonder? She uses recycled and biodegradable brands that don't pollute.

It all began in 2012, when Singer was a senior in environmental studies at New York University. One day, she noticed that a classmate used disposable plastic containers, bottled water, and plastic silverware for lunch, producing a lot of garbage. That led Singer to look critically at her own waste. In her fridge, almost everything was wrapped in plastic, she realized.

That's when she decided to live a zero-waste life. What little waste she now produces...