I am now well over half way through this magazine journalism MA, and to accompany this piece about why I’ve spent most of this second semester writing about politics, I’ve made a video:
To sum up what I said there, we’re now in the final stages of writing a magazine – and with just a month to go, we really appreciate everyones kind donations towards our Crowd Funding campaign.
Not so long ago, I was confused with the world, unable to make sense of political events and like most people my age unsure what I could do to make ‘it’ and people feel better. I was lost. We all were. So following the EU referendum I wrote this in June last year.
As time went on, and people were literally wondering (including most politicians) ‘what the fuck do we do now?’ It became apparent that young people overwhelmingly voted to remain, and if 16 year olds were given the vote we could be looking at a very different outcome. This decision was going to affect our future, more than anyone’s in years to come. A year on we still don’t know what that future is going to look like, because no one has a clue. Now that we are heading towards a general election, the future for young people looks even more bleak.
In September, I came together with a group of journalists, who despite being incredibly different individuals, with diverse interests – we all share the same vision and values – to ultimately change the conversation around young people and politics. There is a campaign to ‘change the conversation around mental health’ in the media, that I absolutely support, but it’s also about time that we work together to change the conversation about young people. Lets make them feel valued and listened to. The amount of times I’ve heard young people being described as lazy, or uninterested and worse. There is certainly a stigma of young people, and if you are a young person with a mental health condition and other difficulties, this marginalisation compounds these feelings even more.
In February we became Stand Up Magazine (although we first considered the project back in November after the Trump election) and the campaign, support and conversation has gone from strength to strength. Stand Up aims to empower young people to get involved in politics and to provide a platform to have a voice.
As a team, we want to make a small difference, to change the discourse and discussions, and to make young people feel included. Stand Up is written entirely by young people for young people, we are all under 30, we are all from different backgrounds and we are all keen to produce journalism that listens to young people. The pieces include voices from all groups in society (LGBT, disabilities and refugees amongst others are represented) as well as lighter content about millennial life style, (everyone loves a bit of nostalgia!)
To make this happen, and for Stand Up magazine and the brand to be a success we have launched a Crowd Funding campaign to pay for printing and to distribute the magazine nationally. Anything that you can afford to support us would really be appreciated.
Thank you so much to all our friends, family and strangers who have donated so far. We’re so close to the end of this project, exhausted, tired of the ‘B’ word but deeply proud of what we have achieved so far.
Next time I write here, I will hopefully have a printed magazine to tell you all about…
A Little More Understanding 