Write on: Generation now

There’s a quote I can’t stop thinking about from my interviews for this month’s 225 cover story:

“I think it’s important we create a space for a generation of people who are experiencing this moment differently.”

To get a parent’s perspective on creating a safe space for children who want to be civically engaged, I interviewed Adonica Duggan. As the executive director of external affairs for New Schools of Baton Rouge, she champions education advocacy at her job.

And this summer, she stood by her daughter, Calla Duggan, to champion another cause.

Together, the mother-daughter duo attended Black Lives Matter protests. Calla is a high school sophomore, and Adonica told me she struggled initially with allowing Calla to participate in the first protest following George Floyd’s death.

She says it was gratifying to see Calla be so vocal about racial injustices on her own social media. But she did worry about the possible ramifications of that, and about her child’s safety in an environment where she might encounter people who wanted to express opposing views aggressively.

In the end, she felt it was important to give Calla an opportunity to find—and exercise—her own voice.

Because as adults, it’s impossible for us to truly understand how the chaos of 2020 might feel to the youngest generation.

We ran out of space for Adonica’s words in our 225 cover story (find the full interview at the bottom of this story), but her thoughts seemed to echo what’s been on my mind a lot lately.

All the college students I know, from family members to interns, have vented to me how stressful school—and hence, life—feels for them right now.

Some had in-person classes that suddenly went virtual during the second week of school. Some have said the change completely altered their work-school-life balance. Others have told me they feel abandoned by the system, and like they are going to have to teach more content to themselves.

Right now, young people are under pressure to get good grades, balance work schedules so they can pay for school, and make sure they don’t spread a deadly virus while doing so. All while the world around them seems to be crumbling at the hands of a global health and economic crisis, extreme weather and political divides.

Two-thirds of students said their financial lives have become more stressful during the pandemic, according to a survey from the American College Health Association and Healthy Minds Network.

It’s no wonder the same survey found rates of student depression already rising by the end of May, with 40% of students reporting symptoms of depression.

Several months later, I get how some of them might feel helpless, or like they’re the ones left to clean up grown-ups’ messes.

But if you scroll through social media—or look at who’s being vocal out in the community—one thing seems clear: They’re not staying quiet. They’re not just marching in a protest or participating in calls for change. They are the ones leading it.

They don’t just know technology better than the rest of us, they’ve figured out how to manipulate it for the greater good.

If you want to see Gen Z’s ingenuity in another light, spend some time on TikTok. The youth-dominated social media platform is full of videos that will make you laugh out loud, want to learn a complicated new dance, and genuinely teach you some cool tricks or DIYs. The videos are seconds long, but they’re no picnic to make. My millennial friends and I are mostly still just trying to learn how to use the app.

I remember thinking life was so stressful in high school because I had to study hard for AP classes or decide who to put in my MySpace top eight.

That seems so small when I think about everything today’s kids have to balance, prepping for their futures in these impossible times—while also trying to save the future for the rest of us.

I’ll admit I don’t remember a lot of what I learned in my school classes. But Baton Rouge will forever remember the work our local kids are doing to fight for change.

This article was originally published in the October 2020 issue of 225 Magazine.