What I Wish Pro-Choice Leaders Knew About Young People

In my years working with young women, particularly young women of color, there is one lesson I take away above all others. Young people don't need anyone to speak for them. What they need is people to make spaces for them to speak for themselves, to share their truths and support them as they translate those lived experiences into different forms of activism. Young women of color don't need me to tell them what is important in their lives, or why they should care about reproductive justice. They live these issues everyday! And young people are developing their own responses to reproductive oppression. As an ally, what I can and must do is lift up their voices, support their leadership and call our movement out for its continued inattention to their concerns and de-valuing of their contributions (Yes, I'm talking to you, Nancy Keenan and NARAL!) Young people are not part of the problem, they never were. They are part of the solution, if we would make space for their voices, experiences, ideas and leadership.

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