Jamie Tworkowski, 28, founded the non-profit To Write Love on Her Arms.

I think at one point or another we’ve all encountered someone we know or someone a friend knows who has dealt with drug addiction, self-injury or depression. I certainly have. But Jamie Tworkowski did something about it. At 26, he left his six-figure job to help a suffering friend and so many others like her.

Jamie wrote a story called "To Write Love on Her Arms" after he helped save a friend from self-destruction. He believes what saved his friend was love, truth in a world of lies and realization of what life can be when people commit to meeting a need. In 2006, the title of the story turned into a movement by the same name in his Orlando community. Its message and reach as a non-profit has grown immensley since then, raising $100,000 in just a year.

Suicide is the third-leading cause of death among young people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “A friend of mine told me there is no such thing as suicide prevention. This is an attempt to prove him wrong, to say that love can change a life. We can hold back the darkness. Rescue is possible,” Jamie says.

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Molly and Carly Houlahan started Hives for Lives to donate money to cancer charities.

I met Molly and Carly Houlahan at Service Nation in New York recently. Before they even told me their story, I could tell these were special girls. And their story only made them more so.

When these sisters were 9 and 11, their grandfather died suddenly from throat cancer. It was devastating to them because he was so young. They wanted to do something not only to remember him, but to make sure others would not be stricken by cancer like he was.

They started reminiscing about their grandfather's love for his bee hives and the harvest he completed ever year, when they realized they could sell honey and donate the procedes to charities that help fight cancer. They started Hives for Lives with 23 hives, selling raw honey at farmers markets, craft stores and Whole Foods. Five years later, they have donated more than $150,000 to cancer charities.

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Una Kim, 30, co-founded Keep Company, a cruelty-free brand of shoes.

I get asked a lot, “What makes young entrepreneurs different?” I think it’s the underlying consciousness that links every budding business tycoon I’ve featured: the basic desire for due diligence and care for sustainability. Una Kim is a prime example of both of those things.

In her twenties, Una started Keep Company, a skateboarding-inspired shoe brand. Every shoe is cruelty-free. But it’s still full of what Una and her little team that could believe their customers want.

“I was skateboarding a lot because I was living in New York, and I hated all the girls' shoes on the market,” Una says of her inspiration for her company. She bought boys' shoes in their smallest size because they weren’t those “puffy pink ugly marshmellowy things that misappropriated the color pink” but more streamlined and authentic. “It’s all about understanding the American dream,” this first-generation American says of the good company she keeps.

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Sejal Hathi, 17, founded Girls Helping Girls.

I see it less these days than when I started this series, but the idolization of careless young people continues. When I started featuring the young people who really speak for our generation, I thought of girls like Sejal Hathi, the girls and guys whose names we should know, the stories young people should look up to.

Sejal started Girls Helping Girls when she was 15. The organization aims to empower all girls to transform the world in substantive ways. One of her big initiatives is a program appropriately called Empower-a-Girl, which partners girls in the U.S. with those in developing countries. Another push is the Sisters 4 Peace Network, which provides one-on-one mentoring for aspiring changemakers and those who are actively changing their part of the world.

Girls Helping Girls has engaged 5,000 girls in more than 15 countries in North America, Africa and Asia and has raised more that $30,000 for educational programs. Now 17, Sejal's ultimate goal is to unite young women behind the same universal vision of self-respect and service, rather than the frivolity and superficiality that has for too long been the only thing some girls see.

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James Kotecki, 23, hosts KoteckiTV for Politico.com.

He went to school to study international relations, but James Kotecki is an expert in something totally different: YouTube. From his Georgetown University dorm room, Kotecki started a politically-focused videoblog he called, “the vlog of vlogs.”

Equipped only with a cheap webcam and raw talent for political satire, Kotecki started producing videos to find his voice online as a commentator. He also tapped the candidates' YouTube channels, to request interviews with them. It worked. Ron Paul and Mike Gravel showed up for interviews in James’ dorm room!

Now 23, James writes, produces and hosts KoteckiTV for Politico.com. He releases new video blogs every day. Hey, it’s not the financial job he was planning but he’s definitely found his niche this political season.

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