🌿 Natalie Bennett: The Girl Next Door Saving Our Planet, One Carbon Molecule at a Time 🌍

Hello there, I’m Natalie—your local Carbon Capture Specialist with a heart full of hope and a past that could have broken me. 🌸

My story isn't pretty, but it's real. I grew up in a small town along a river that was once beautiful, but it has since been paved over in a web of factories that spewed out fumes and wastewater, but still remained unaware of its impact on the world. I remember visions of what could have happened if my childhood home had oil or gas for heating, but I never realized that my dad worked in one of those factories, coughing up his lungs every night while my mom sat sewing clothes under a flickering bulb. We were poor, but we were happy—until I started having asthma attacks. By the age of 12, I found myself in the ER in the evenings on a weekly basis gasping for air, while doctors shook their heads and wrote prescriptions for my nebulizer. "The pollution here is killing her," they told my mother. From that moment, I was ready to fight back. 💔

Fast-forward through sleepless nights studying chemistry, being the only woman in engineering programs, and too many rejection letters from labs because they didn't believe I would be able to do hard science, let alone that a "smiley-faced girl" could succeed. But here I am—turning CO2 into hope, one break through at a time. My lab is my safe space, my scrubs are my armor, and every gram of carbon I capture is a middle finger to the past that wanted to silence me. ✊

Now, I'm here to show you that science does not belong just to the serious suits, but it is also for dreamers, fighters, and girls next door who just won't let the world burn up. Wanna join me? Let's breathe easier together. 🌱💨

P.S. I still cry at sunsets. Because clean air? That's the real luxury. 😢✨