When Aleksi Toiviainen was fifteen, he led a protest against changes in his school’s curriculum that removed content on LGBTQ and indigenous communities. Aleksi rallied over five hundred students to walk out against these curriculum changes, yet follow-up actions that attempted to protect this content failed. In the wake of this defeat, Aleksi felt powerless.

His experience is common for young people trying to engage in politics on a larger scale, too. Young people have taken to the streets and gained national attention protesting around issues like gun control and preventing climate change, yet progress remains elusive. Youth activists like Greta Thunberg garner global media coverage, yet the world is on track to miss Paris Agreement emission goals, and the United States has expanded oil drilling and defunded climate change research.

The 2025 Harvard Youth Poll found that only 13 percent of young Americans believe the country is headed in the right direction. They are worried about the state of the economy and their future opportunities, given the rise of artificial intelligence. And while more young voters align with the Democratic Party than with the Republican Party, both sets of voters view their own parties negatively.