teens

To cel­e­brate the Unit­ed Nations’ Inter­na­tion­al Youth Day, I wrote a guest blog for the Beyond Words blog explain­ing why I wrote Be a Change­mak­er specif­i­cal­ly for young read­ers. Here’s an excerpt:

We know that young peo­ple have always been at the fore­front of soci­etal change. Ado­les­cence is a time when peo­ple begin to ques­tion and cri­tique the morals and stan­dards of the soci­ety in which they are liv­ing. Teens and young adults start to appre­ci­ate the com­plex­i­ties of social prob­lems and the trade­offs that come with var­i­ous solu­tions to those prob­lems. In addi­tion, young peo­ple are known for cre­at­ing, adopt­ing, and cir­cu­lat­ing the cul­ture of their times, be it the peaceniks of the 60s or the hip-hop move­ment of today.

Mod­ern youth, how­ev­er, are more empow­ered than ever to shape the world as they see fit…

To read the whole thing, click here.