BBC Radio 1 has named its three Teen Heroes of 2018. The outstanding young winners have all proven their dedication to helping others through selfless, brave and exceptional achievements.
The three winners include 16 year-old Siena, who works to support students with autism and learning disabilities; 14 year-old Lily, a wheelchair motocross competitor and advocate; and 14 year-old Junior, a male dancer who campaigns against bullying.

They will each be presented with their Teen Hero Award at Radio 1’s Teen Awards on Sunday 21 October at London’s SSE Arena, Wembley.

Radio 1’s Teen Awards, the number one teen event in the calendar, honours the UK’s unsung teenage heroes as well as the year’s best music, online, sport and entertainment stars.

The event will be hosted by Radio 1 DJs Greg James, Maya Jama and Mollie King. An audience of 14-17 year-olds will enjoy musical performances from an outstanding line-up, including Little Mix, 5 Seconds of Summer and Liam Payne, as well as appearances by celebrity award winners and award presenters.

The three Radio 1 Teen Heroes of 2018 are:

Siena, aged 16
Siena has autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia and ADHD. She created the website QL Mentoring when she was 13 to support students with autism and learning difficulties, since all the resources she could find focussed on supporting parents and not the students themselves. Siena also works as a peer outreach worker with charities and organisations that support young people with disabilities, and is a student representative of 2eMPower, which aims to support secondary school students with autism and learning difficulties to succeed in STEM. Siena is also currently serving as a Youth Board Member on the Diana Award National Anti-Bullying Youth Board, focusing on raising awareness of disability based bullying, particularly in relation to ‘invisible disabilities’ such as autism.

Lily, aged 14
Lily has a hereditary progressive condition called spastic paraplegia. She is a wheelchair user as she struggles to walk and suffers with aching joints and painful leg spasms. At 13, Lily decided to get involved in wheelchair motocross (WCMC) and within 7 months of starting her new hobby she performed a wheelchair backflip, becoming the first female in Europe and the second female in the World to do so. In April this year, she won Silver in the Women's Open World championships, held in America. She has been working hard to change the lives of others through WCMX and has been helping young children to access the sport, supporting them by introducing them to skate parks and enabling them to access funding through a local charity to obtain WCMX chairs.

Junior, aged 14
Junior is the current UK Freestyle Street Dance Champion. He was bullied for being a male dancer from the age of six, forcing him to move school and house. This led him to set up his own anti-bullying social media campaign using the hashtag #BoysCanDance, which he has since spoken about in Parliament and at Downing Street. Junior has also used his dancing skills to help raise over £300,000 for charities by performing at a number of different events and was a Youth Board Member on the Diana Award National Anti-Bullying Youth Board, where he helped to empower other young people to stand up to bullies and be themselves.

Aled Haydn Jones, Head of Programmes, Radio 1, says: “We are so proud to be able to celebrate three more incredible Teen Heroes this year. Every year Radio 1’s Teen Awards shines a light on exceptional young people around the country and Siena, Lily and Junior are all truly worthy winners. We can’t wait to welcome them to the Teen Awards and acknowledge their outstanding dedication to helping others.”

Radio 1 DJ Matt Edmonson says: “As ever, it was impossibly hard to choose our three Teen Heroes from all of the amazing nominees. I’m so pleased for this year’s winners - I know they’ll have an incredible time at the Teen Awards on Sunday. I’m not sure who’s looking forward to it more, them or me!”

Further details about Radio 1’s Teen Awards here.

Notes to Editors:

BBC Radio 1 is the UK’s No.1 youth station, targeting 15 to 29 year-olds with a distinctive mix of new music and programmes focusing on issues affecting young people. The station is the soundtrack to young people's lives in the UK and has been for over 50 years.

Radio 1 has a weekly audience of 10.25 million (including all listeners aged 10+) and is the most watched radio station in the world. Radio 1’s YouTube and Vevo channel has 6.4 million subscribers and receives an average of 2.29 million views a day. Radio 1 has over ten million listeners a week and ten million followers on social media. Radio 1’s iPlayer channel has received over 48 million total views.

One of the station’s key purposes is to support new British music and emerging artists, also discovering new talent through BBC Music Introducing. It champions a breadth of live music through platforms like Radio 1’s Big Weekend, Radio 1 Teen Awards, Radio 1 in Ibiza, BBC Music Sound of 2018, Radio 1 Rocks and Radio 1’s Live Lounge Month, as well as various sessions from the Live Lounge and Maida Vale studios.

Radio 1 is a force for good and the leading voice for young people in the UK, tackling relevant issues through our documentaries, podcasts, Radio 1’s Life Hacks, Newsbeat, as well as our mental health campaigns like My Mind and Me - a year-long campaign launched in December 2016 to get young people talking about mental health and to raise awareness and understanding of mental health issues. Other key social action and education campaigns include #1MillionHours - a year-long volunteering campaign launched in December 2015 that saw Radio 1 and 1Xtra motivate their young listeners to pledge 1 million hours of time to good causes over 12 months.

BBC Radio 1 is a truly multiplatform station, enabling young audiences to connect to the network and to listen, watch and share great content both at home and whilst on the move - via FM and DAB Radio; Radio 1’s YouTube channel; Radio 1’s BBC iPlayer channel; the BBC iPlayer Radio app; online (www.bbc.co.uk/radio1); Freeview and other digital television platforms; and via mobile.