My name goes here.

Just going to go ahead and reblog this from my new blog…see ya old blog!

wearethenewyouth:

So my boss gave me the idea of going freelance…which is what I’m eventually going to do once I’ve completely taught myself to become a master of Photoshop/Illustrator/Fireworks/Dreamweaver/The entire web creative suite…

but something else I’ve wanted to do for a while, something I guess I’ve wanted to do in one way or another since I was about 13, is build a creative group of people, like a team/collective/collaborative of like minded individuals called The New Youth.

Why The New Youth? Well, I’m sure I’m not the only one who has noticed the difference between the old and new generations - the way we’re treated, the way we’re ‘seen’, the way we portray ourselves - and quite frankly I find it embarrassing right now to be part of ‘our generation’ and I find that quite sad, I want it to be different.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some really brilliant, talented, kind-hearted and inspirational people in our generation (many of which I am extremely lucky and proud to call my friends) but I believe these people are overlooked, under-appreciated and often taken for granted. The media especially likes to ignore the youth that do incredible good in this world and instead like to focus on the likes of our ‘binge-drinking, drug-taking, disrespectful’ youth of today. All you need to do is look in the papers for evidence of how we, as a generation, are portrayed and unfortunately it is mostly negative. To be fair, when you read about what some of our age group are up to, or see with your own eyes where some of your past peers have ended up, it’s difficult not to feel disappointed, to feel disheartened when you see the kind of people that many have turned into…for example - I went to a pretty middle-class school growing up and never in a million years would I have guessed that by 20 years old so many of my classmates would - have children, be in trouble with the police, be addicted to drugs, be an alcoholic mess, be vulgar or disrespectful little brats, be lazy non-working citizens or would end up on Jeremy Kyle! (This genuinely happened!) and it makes me so sad to know what has become of these people, especially the ones that had so much potential and so much talent and just threw it away. Of course I’m not blaming these people and in no way am I looking down on them or believe I am in some way better than them (don’t get me started on how I believe everyone deserves to be treated equally…) because I know that a lot of these people ended up on these paths due to influence by many different things and many different people. Everyone’s circumstances are different. However, that doesn’t change the fact that this happened, no matter who is to blame. 

Going off-topic a bit there…What I’m trying to say is that I don’t want to be labelled and put in a box or dismissed or looked down on just because I count as part of this generation. How is it fair that those of us with ambition, those of us who aspire to do something good with our lives, who wish to spark some good in the world might be overlooked simply because of our age and the assumed personality or work ethic that is associated with that? And I completely understand that this is not the case everywhere - I’m extremely lucky with my current job, I absolutely love it and I have never felt that I have been treated differently or negatively simply because of my age - yet I know that it does happen, and I hate to see talented young people having to work so damn hard just to prove that they are worthwhile.

So, here is what I want to do - I want to create the ‘New Youth’ a new version of our current youth who stand for something different, who believe in something different and aspire to prove that we are not the ‘hopeless generation’ that the media portrays us as. We remain part of our current generation but we are a ‘movement’ as such that will aim to inspire other members of our youth to get creative, to get involved and to aspire to so much more. I know for a fact that there is so much talent out there, I’ve seen it and it fills me with so much joy to witness it but when there is no one to appreciate it, to support or nurture it…what happens to it then? People who feel under-appreciated, who remain unnoticed, will eventually feel like what they are creating or working towards is worthless, and this is so not the case. If we can encourage people to work together, to appreciate each others talents and tocollaborate then imagine what sort of incredible things we’ll see!

So what I propose - just to start with - is to get a short-list of young people who would be interested in this sort of thing together. Preferably freelancers who would be happy to be affiliated with each other professionally, perhaps to start with a website of portfolios of those who work in the creative industries e.g - film makers, photographers, graphic designers, copy writers, editors, creative writers, digital media designers, developers, musicians, composers, artists, illustrators etc 

Once this list is together, it’d be great to have everyone communicate their ideas and suggestions and to find out how we can all help each other. Personally, I’d love this to open up multiple collaborations with the aim of everyone working together or on different projects that would culminate in some sort of final event (perhaps in front of some key industry/government people) showcasing the collective talent and showing what we, as our own youth, are capable of. And I’m not talking some ‘end of school year’ shitty talent-show contest. I’m talking high-end, quality work that people around the world would be jealous of. Now, some of you might not think we’re capable of producing that kind of content, in which case you’re just going to have to look around you, look into the older generation if you must and just see the incredible things that people were creating at our age, look at what people younger than us have already achieved and then put a little faith in your own talent, in your own youth. 

So…who’s with me?