Why Can I Buy a Lottery Ticket, but Not Talk About Change? | Emeline Smith | TEDxYouth@CherryCreek
[Music] [Applause] okay i'd like for you to look at me for a second put yourselves in my shoes they're cute aren't they it's your 18th birthday and you are absolutely ecstatic it's like the intros to those early 2000s movies where music's playing in the background you have no clue where it's playing from but the main characters dancing around that was me i swear there was music playing from the sky i can't tell you where it was um but i woke up and i was so excited because i had super powers i know you're probably thinking what superpowers you're talking about right now well i had what i thought was going to be the amazing superpower of adulthood so i'm getting ready i'm thinking okay how am i going to use my new superpowers i could join the military but i'm far too intimidating for that um let's see what else could you do i could go and get a tattoo but i didn't feel like giving my mom a heart attack on my 18th birthday um so that was out of the question i got it i can have dessert before dinner but my mom was making my favorite meal that night so that was also out of the questions so that left me with one final light bulb the best idea yet i was gonna do what any other responsible adult would do and i was gonna gamble i was gonna go get a lottery ticket i know such a good idea so responsible of me so i walk to my nearest gas station with my friend and i'm so excited and i've got my id in my hand and i am ready i'm like i'm going to show them i'm an adult i'm going to show them my new super powers i was absolutely ecstatic i woke up like hey can i get a lottery ticket please dude kind of just looks at me and i'm like does he not know that like i'm an adult now like hello and you know he asked me for my money i'm waiting for him to ask me for my id and i'm waiting and i'm waiting and he just never asks so i walk out and i'm like okay either my superpowers are just gleaming and he can just tell or he just let me off the hook he's not gonna ask me for my id so we go to another gas station i'm like this is the one he's gonna ask me for my id same exact thing happened never once asked me for my id and i wish i could tell you that i had some exact epiphany in this moment but i did it in all honesty i was just sad i couldn't show off that i turned 18 that day but my epiphany did come a few days later when i was speaking to an adult at my school about youth mental health i was speaking on how i felt like everyone at our school was burnt out because we didn't have enough breaks and how mental health wasn't necessarily prioritized at our school and the adult kind of slowed me down they went hold on hold on i don't think you know enough right now to talk about this i think that once you're older you'll understand a little bit more where we're coming from and while i understand i need to understand her perspective i was kind of like whoa i i'm one of these people experiencing this burnout i'm i experience mental health just as much as you do as an adult so why why am i being written off because i'm younger i don't understand and this is where my question comes in that i want to talk to you guys about today why was it that i could walk into the gas station on my 18th birthday and buy a lottery ticket no question asked they thought it was mature enough i was old enough but the moment i tried to talk about significant change an issue that we need genuine help around i was written off as too naive too young often times in our society when you're young people believe that you know nothing and that's not how it is there's this false power dynamic that adults are up here because they have more experience on earth they're x amount of years old while we're only 13 14 15 you get what i'm saying so we're down here because we have less experience but this doesn't work because we're all experiencing the same exact things right now we're all going through climate change we're all seeing the wars that are going on we're all experiencing mental health crisis um it could go on and on we're all experiencing the same earth right now so we need to switch the power dynamics where it's adults know more and kids can't really talk about these subjects so where it's evened out a little bit how many times during elections especially have you heard people say we want to hear from more youth we want to hear more more voices from the younger people but the moment that younger people speak up it's oh they don't know enough about this they they need to learn a little bit more they haven't learned that in class yet you know they weren't here when so and so is president so they don't understand what happens when this goes on no it shouldn't be like that we're here experiencing the same exact earth that every other single adult is experiencing i've had the incredible blessing to work for a youth advocacy organization the past two years called colorado youth congress which is essentially a group of 60 students all across the state of colorado who gets together and they talk specifically about mental mental health and racial justice when we get together we're given full power like i said it is youth led while the founder and the coaches are there to support us they have full faith that we know we're talking about and that the change we're asking for is change that is needed they're just there as guiding factors but they know that because they're adults they don't have voices that overpower us they have voices that can co-create with us with my time in colorado youth congress i've testified to pass two bills little me look at me i testified to pass two bills that's amazing i've worked with other youth all across colorado to help implement better school trainings and things such as that and all around i've gotten to work with numerous people in power to just talk about mental health and to have these discussions and unfortunately i will tell you we've had times where people have gone oh they're too young or where someone in our in our call for colorado youth congress will raise their hand and say i love this new thing we're working on but i'm nervous we're not going to be taken seriously as kids it's a valid thing that we're concerned about but i'd like to go back and point out to you like i said i helped testify to pass bills i've helped implement trainings in schools so many incredible things because people trusted my voice even though i was only 16 17 18 years old during my work with this advocacy organization so this is just my experience if we give more youth experience that i've gotten to have where i can step up and share my voice and be taken seriously by most people um then we're gonna see such a big shift in our thought process with change kids and adults no longer should be on the spectrum of adults knowing more and kids knowing less they should be evened out i can assure you if you are talking to a kid and they say something about change if you talk with them rather than writing them off you guys will come to a general consensus and you will actually get to really good solutions now i'm not saying kids know everything i still don't know why i have to separate whites from colors in the wash but that's a discussion for another time i'm just saying that instead of automatically writing us off as youth you should talk with us hear us out we are experiencing and seeing the same exact things that you guys are experiencing and singing just because it's a huge world doesn't mean that only one person in it is understanding climate change or that only the adults are understanding the financial situation we're in we're all understanding it and if at any time a youth comes to you and says this is what i believe on this topic and you disagree with them talk with them about it if i went up to you and said hey the sky is purple i really hope you tell me yeah um emmeline i think you're wrong there the sky's blue don't just go you're right because you said i need to listen to kids more you're right no i'm not saying that i'm just saying co-create together if adults and kids can work together then we're going to come some more head-on solutions we're going to see less of this conflict of disagreeing of oh my gosh gen z doesn't know what they're talking about and things like that because if we actually talk to each other and agree with each other and try to work things out then everything's going to work out and we're going to be able to find a solution if more kids can have the chance that i had with colorado youth congress then we're going to see so much more come to life with that i mean think about it us kids one day are going to be the future president the future of state legislative we're going to be doctors i'm hopefully going to be a forensic psychologist the list goes on and on and on but if we're not given the opportunity now to state how we feel and the positions that we're in and if you don't trust our values how are we supposed to grow up with confidence and to be in those positions and feel heard and trusted we're not because we weren't hurt and trusted when we were little just because we are kids does not mean that we do not know anything so today if you get anything out of my talk it's one don't buy a lottery ticket i only won four dollars and it was very unfortunate for me and two the most important thing that i'd really like you to take out of this talk today is to co-create with youth in your life if you're a teacher talk with students in your classrooms what about what's going on hear them hear their opinions hear about their take on mental health in the classroom if you're a parent hear your kids out talk to them when the election is going on if they don't want to talk about it they don't have to talk about it but if they have a voice don't just write them off don't go oh honey like i don't i don't think you really really know what you're talking about don't say that because we do know what we're talking about we just have a different perspective on it please please please do not write us off because we are younger adults and youth have a lot in common and once we actually talk about that we'll see that i've gotten to do amazing work with colorado youth congress and i wouldn't be here speaking with you if it weren't for them and it's because they saw me for more than just my age they saw a young girl who wanted to fight for change who wanted better mental health tools and as same as the other 59 or some kids in colorado youth congress they saw the same exact thing and we're fortunate to have people that see us like that but there's so many kids in our world that don't have that so today please walk away and talk to the youth in your lives tell people about this say hey maybe we should shift this power dynamic and i can assure you we can see great things come from it thank you [Music] you