Villaseñor's fight for climate action was sparked when she was caught in a smoke cloud from the November 2018 Camp Fire in California during a family visit. As an asthma sufferer, she became physically ill, during which time she researched the climate change and temperature rises which contributed to the fire's severity.[1] Her mother, Kristin Hogue, was enrolled in the M.A. in Climate and Society program at Columbia University[4] and Villaseñor would occasionally attend class with her mother, where she learned about the underlying science of climate change.[8] Soon afterward, she joined New York's chapter of Zero Hour, a group of American youth climate activists.[4]