5 Minute GAP - Youthwashing and the power of authentic youth voices
In advance of this year's Transform Our World Youth Summit, Jodie and Binah talk about youthwashing, what it is and why it's a problem, and look at the power of listening to authentic youth voices.
"We Share Freely". The change we want to see in the world is bigger than we are. So, we're sharing our knowledge, resources and ideas to help more people and organisations take steps forward towards our vision of a green and thriving planet, where everyone can enjoy happy and healthy lives within the Earth's limits.
As part of this, we've launched our "5 Minute GAP" series, a collection of five minute conversations that will share how we work and what we're working on. We'll talk about what we're trying to achieve and why, how we function as an organisation, and the thinking behind our plans and strategy.
We'll be regularly sharing these conversations, which will feature different members of our team and trustee board, as well as external experts.
We hope you enjoy listening in to our chats, getting to know our team and finding out what makes us who we are.
If you prefer to read rather than watch, the transcription is here:
Jodie: To me, youthwashing seems as if companies or businesses want to seem like young people are at their core or they... they’re doing their work for the benefit of young people. And they're portraying that externally and publicly. But actually internally they might not actually be hearing the voices of young people when they might be claiming to know all about young people. Yeah. So ends up kind of being a bit of a façade and it not being very genuine in terms of what they're claiming to do for young people is kind of how I see it. What about you?
Binah: Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? It makes me sort of feel quite uncomfortable in a way, because a lot of the time young people might be spoken to or used, as it were, by businesses or for marketing means or by governments, even by... for people who are in positions of power within society. But actually a lot of the time their power is isn't necessarily directly linked to that. So young people aren't necessarily the bulk of consumers when they're buying stuff from shops or from businesses. They can't all have the right to vote yet, but yet they're sort of being used as a without their will in a way, sometimes. Especially when those organisations are sort of placing young people at the forefront of whatever they're campaigning or marketing about, but actually not listening to the real things that young people are concerned about or want to speak about. It's much more about using them for marketing or for that purpose.
Yeah, it makes me think about sort of my childhood and thinking about when people in government or businesses or from different areas of society sort of talking about, “Oh, this is what young people think” and feeling really misrepresented or not heard, even “No, I don't think that” or “yes, I do, but you shouldn't have the right to say that, me and my generation should be saying that.”
Jodie: Yeah, I agree. I mean, I feel like the thing I hate most in life is generalizations. They just annoy me so much, and I feel like that... that's why it's so powerful to hear those individual stories and hear that genuine youth voice and hear from people who might have experiences that are relevant or, you know, emotions that are relevant. I think storytelling in itself is so powerful. But when you have that authenticity and you're actually coming from a place of genuine care for young people, then I think there's nothing more powerful, really, than hearing those stories and not making those generalizations and sweeping statements that aren't generally true.
Binah: Yeah, and interesting you talk about authenticity of I guess youthwashing, greenwashing, all these ways that we're being made more aware of the fact that what people are saying might actually not be true or they might be sort of saying things in a misguiding way is really... feels quite a new thing to be challenging or thinking about as an individual in society. That you want to be able to trust the things you're being told rather than question their validity or their accuracy.
But that then there's that sort of interesting nuance now of the voice of young people being recognised is really important. But still, maybe that bit of questioning about whether it's authentic youth voice and actually what does that mean? And a lot of the time, having the freedom and having the sort of trust in young people to say what they want to say that’s, I guess, quite a scary proposition sometimes for the people to to feel actually we want to hear from people, but we want them to sort of say this or we want them to do this rather than actually hearing directly from from them as individuals about what they care about, what they're concerned about, what they want their world to look like in their futures, because ultimately it's their world that we're all living in, and that we're making the changes to. And they'll have to live with it for longer than all of the rest of us.
So it's interesting that sort of balance and seeing how... I guess we can all probably think of examples of when young people have been really misrepresented and another examples where they've actually been represented in a much better way. But even then, it's still questioning whether that's really authentic, which seems very cynical, I don't want to feel overly critical.
Jodie: Downward spiral.
Binah: Yeah, exactly. It's just but I guess it's it's holding... All of us need to hold ourselves to account, to be always pushing for even more authenticity. And I guess listening. Just listening to young people more.
Jodie: Yeah, definitely. And I think something that we're both working on a lot of the moment is our Transform Our World youth summit. And I know from my side
that's been something that's been really exciting, to bring together loads of amazingly inspiring young people who have CVs and experiences way longer than mine, which is amazing. But just to bring those, those authentic voices together in a really kind of open, safe space, to kind of just say what they want to say and speak up for what they believe in. And I think in particular, this kind of conversation is making me really look forward to our session titled “Is power on our side?” And I know with that, we'll have some amazing young people giving their views on youthwashing and other topics like greenwashing and hearing from young people themselves as to what they think about these tactics used by those in power, which I think will be really interesting.
So I think a lot of the time it is adults and older people who might be giving their opinions on youthwashing and greenwashing. But actually, I think hearing that youth voice on this topic is equally valuable.
Binah: Definitely. Yeah. And it's been interesting working on this youth summit as well reflecting on previous youth summits as well of like the need to always
continuing to even more listen to young people, that young people... our Transform Our World youth ambassadors were a key part in establishing what our theme would be this year, looking at what power means as a concept and who holds power and how do they use that power? And that has really driven the whole plan of the summit. It's driven the sort of conversations that we're having, and then it's driven who we're talking to and who are listening to for that summit. That's just so important to being an event for young people. There's no point loads of us as adults deciding stuff and then saying to young people, “Watch this”, and actually not representing at all where they're at. And so it’s been a really interesting sort of thing to work through is actually just being driven by young people and what they want to learn from this as a resource, as something that can bring young people together as well, which is really, really exciting.