“My one interview with a youth activist propelled me into advocacy, which led me to civic engagement opportunities and eventually to a career in policy,” he said.
Now 24, Lee is the climate and disaster data coordinator at Unicef Malaysia, where he works to strengthen child-focused policies, systems and programmes through the generation, management and application of climate, environmental and disaster risk data.
It all began a decade ago, when he saw an advertisement for The Star’s Starstruck! young journalist initiative, which invited teen writers to contribute to the stuff@school pullout, before the programme later merged with BRATs.
With the encouragement of his family and public speaking teacher, he leapt at the opportunity to see his byline in The Star, which he had enjoyed reading since primary school.
As one of the younger participants, Lee quickly discovered that writing for a newspaper was vastly different from writing for a school examination paper, with the former requiring far more than he expected.
Though his very first write-up didn’t make it into print, he worked hard and eventually found his footing, writing articles in different formats, including feature interviews.
He credited Rowena Chua, currently The Star’s Education deputy editor, who oversaw his time in BRATs, for treating the young participants as writers fully capable of expressing themselves, while upholding high standards for deadlines, format and presentation.
“I became more intentional about understanding what worked for print, such as how to write more concisely and find stronger angles,” he said.
With every byline and opportunity gained over the years, Lee’s confidence grew. Juggling schoolwork with BRATs assignments taught him time management, while identifying and reaching out to different interviewees built his resourcefulness and networking skills.
“Within my first year in the programme, I had interviewed a lawyer, a war correspondent and a Malaysian Olympian,” he said.
He shared that conducting interviews taught him to “really listen, go beyond prepared questions, and ask follow-up questions”.
“All the time I spent keeping abreast of current affairs, which was part and parcel of the programme, built a deeper awareness of the world around me,” he added.
Those instincts carry him through even now as he engages with policymakers and communities.
“I definitely would not have expected that I would be doing the socially impactful work that I once looked up to my interviewees for doing,” he said.
Despite his policy work, Lee has never left writing behind. To this day, he still contributes as a writer through his monthly Youth Pulse column in the Sunday Star, which shines a light on the concerns of today’s youth.
“I grew up reading the columns of Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai and Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir, and marvelled at how they could express their thoughts on social issues so articulately, so seeing my byline alongside theirs still feels surreal,” he said.
When asked for his advice to Malaysian youth, he said: “Always stay curious and grounded in what matters to you.
“Having a sense of direction, even if it has adapted over time, has made it easier for me to navigate uncertainties and make choices that are meaningful to me.
“The opportunities that have shaped me since then have come from places I least expected and from the small decision to put myself out there.”
This feature is part of a series spotlighting alumni of The Star’s BRATs Young Journalist Programme in celebration of Star Media Group’s 55th anniversary. Since 1993, the programme has benefited thousands of Malaysian teenagers, instilling journalistic instincts and ethics, and above all, a spirit of curiosity. To stay connected, follow @starbrats on Instagram.
