We like to use our daily Celebrate Love feature to spread a little joy. It’s a fiercely protected space–goodness knows there’s enough bad news out there. But we got this submission from a reader and today we’re shifting the tone a bit to recognize a young person named Taylor Griffin, who passed away last Thursday after a tragic car accident.

Taylor was a senior at Dorsey High School in Los Angeles. She was a talented actor who was active in her school’s drama department, and a community activist and youth leader active in South Central Youth Empowered through Action, a project of the Community Coalition, which shared news of Taylor’s passing. On the organization’s website Taylor wrote: "I joined SC-YEA because I was born in South Los Angeles, so why wouldn’t I want to help my community? I want South Los Angeles to be the best place."

The Community Coalition shared a photo of Taylor speaking at a rally in July 2009 to protest then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s education budget cuts–just one part of her activism and community work.

Taylor also had a scholarship to Howard University waiting for her once she got out of high school. She wanted to become an attorney someday.

Colorlines multimedia editor Jorge Rivas and I had the chance to meet Taylor last week at school and after just a few minutes with her, it was clear she had a bright light inside her. Jorge told me later: "That girl has a story. You can just tell."

Indeed, Taylor had much to say, and many stories to tell. It’s all of our loss that she’s no longer here to share them. Today we’re celebrating one young person’s fighting spirit and activism, and the love that she had for her community.

This week we’re taking reader submissions for our daily Celebrate Love. If you’ve got an image that says love, send it to us. Email your original pictures or illustrations to red35might@photos.flickr.com and be sure to include your name in the email so we can credit your content. If you’d like to add a few sentences to include as a caption please put it in the body of the email. (Please only send us images you own the rights to… there’s no love in theft.)

And visit Colorlines.com/celebrate-love to look at past daily love stories.