By Audrey Willett:
Informative Youth is all about getting people educated about current events and social issues. Please enjoy the interview below with the organization's founder, Nidhi, and one of its members, Emily.
AW: Tell us all about you and your organization!
N: Hey, everyone! My name is Nidhi, I use pronouns she/her, and I am the current founder and leader of Informative Youth. The Informative Youth team is basically just a group of youth and teens who work together to create informative posts about different social issues, current events, and so much more. We try to educate people about current events and things that are going on in our world, like ableism, racism, feminism, and so many different topics we have lots of informative posts on; and we really like to educate youth and inform them about what’s currently happening and spread awareness about these topics.
E: Hi, my name’s Emily, and my pronouns are she/her. I’ve been a part of Informative Youth since we started, and we are just a group of students who want to educate the youth in our community and people outside of our community about issues and topics we feel passionate about.
AW: Why do you think it’s important for your generation to let their voices be heard?
N: I think it’s important for people in our generation to have their voices heard because obviously we are the future leaders of our society, and we are future voters, and we are the people who will eventually have big roles in those areas. Especially with current social issues and movements like climate change; if we don’t take action about that, and we don’t care about that, it’s not going to get fixed, it’s just going to get worse, and people are going to die. Our society won’t be able to move forward if our current youth generations don’t step up and speak up about these issues, which is a major thing that Informative Youth aims to do. That’s what we aim to do, to educate youth and spread awareness about these topics so that we can use our platforms and use our voices to educate people about the importance of these things.
E: I think that it’s important that our generation’s voices are heard because we as a generation have a lot of shared experiences and things that we’ve all been through together. We have a sense of interconnectedness through things like social media, where I think that we are more aware of certain things that are going on in the world than past generations have been. So I think because we are the future that it is important for us to start speaking up about things now and to start learning and educating each other so that we can create a better future together.
AW: Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future?
E: I am for the most part optimistic about the future. I think as we are all hopefully listening, learning, collectively sharing stories, educating each other, and lifting each other up, we will make progress as a society and hopefully, by pushing for change, the future will hold better things.
AW: What are the most important issues facing our world right now? And in the future?
N: There are obviously so many different topics that are currently being discussed about things that are currently affecting our world, since lots of people are being impacted by all of these. But, a few of the main things that do stick out to me in terms of issues affecting our world are climate change, equal rights and making sure that there is justice for everyone, access to abortions and healthcare, as well as the anti-trans and anti-LGBTQIA+ laws and bills that are currently being enacted, along with voter suppression, and so many more things that I can’t even remember, because there are so many new things happening every day that it’s kinda hard to keep track, since there are so many issues happening that are affecting a lot of people. So, hopefully, with our organization, we can aim to help educate people more about these broad varieties of topics.
E: I think that there are a lot of issues facing the world right now, in particular, worldwide things like climate change, vaccine availability, women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights. In general, paying attention to people who are billionaires and comparing that to the amount of people who are in poverty. In America particularly, protecting Indigenous people, making sure places are safe and accessible for neurodivergent and disabled people, addressing the disparities against people of color in the criminal justice system, education system, and the medical system, as well as looking at the treatment of immigrants and refugees in America, and holding elected officials overall accountable for their actions and keeping them to their promises.
AW: What does your organization offer that helps the world be a better place?
E: Hopefully, our organization can create a space that is welcome to people who are learning and growing and uplifting those who are taking time to educate themselves about things. And, hopefully, little by little with that progress, we can make the world a better place!
AW: Will you be voting in the next election?
N: No, I will unfortunately not be voting in the next election, because I will be 17 years old, so I will unfortunately not be old enough to vote in the next election. However, as soon as I am old enough, so the 2028 election I think, I will definitely be voting in that one!
E: I will be eligible to vote in the next election, and I will 100% be doing so!
AW: Please tell us all about your current campaigns, projects, and endeavors. Tell everyone where to find you online and on social platforms.
N: With our Informative Youth team, we have created and shared so many informative and educational posts on Instagram about current events to social issues; a very broad variety of topics. We really aim to educate youth, especially with the new generation and everything that’s currently happening in the world. It’s so important to stay informed about what’s happening and to know your role in it, how you can help, and how to overall just spread awareness and have that mindset to know exactly what’s going on. So it would be great if you could please give us a follow on Instagram at @informativeyouth! We are very excited to have large audiences. We are currently at around 780 followers, and one of our goals is to reach 1,000 sometime within the near future, so hopefully we can reach that milestone (with your help, of course)! We are very excited to share even more informative posts with you and to educate even more youth.
Audrey Willett is a southern California sophomore in high school. She is an activist and aspiring filmmaker, and the Social Media Outreach coordinator for The Gen Z Collective.