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Young People Question Alex Salmond on #TruthAboutYouth

27 March 2014

A lot of people don’t like young people.

They’ve got a bad reputation for being loud, obnoxious, shy and awkward, all at once or one at a time in an unpredictable fashion. They’re seen as a group to be controlled and ignored in equal measure, made up of individuals who, left to their own devices, could start a London riot at the drop of a hat.

Young Scot’s Truth About Youth campaign seeks to do away with all of that – by giving young people a voice to challenge negative stereotypes about them and make their opinions heard.

On 26th March, 2014, the Scottish First Minister, Alex Salmond took over the Young Scot Twitter account to engage directly with young people who asked him questions under the hashtag ‘#TruthAboutYouth’. The questions coming in showed not an unruly bunch, but a savvy mixture of young people concerned about issues effecting them, from climate change to unbalanced media representation.

Here are a few of the exchanges, put into graphics:

So instead of giving young people a hard time, let’s not forget the incredible input that many of them have in our communities whether through campaigning, mentoring, educating their peers, and volunteering in other ways.

To read more tweets from the event and to take the Truth About Youth pledge, visit http://www.taypledge.org/

To learn more about Fast Forward and Crew 2000’s upcoming conference ‘Taking the Lead: Peer-Led Approaches’ on June 6th 2014, get in touch with SPEN here.