Class Of 2020: What Young People Want Today
Is “change” really coming—if yes, when?
Buy a copy of Class of 2020.
Class of 2020
M: How confident were you before embarking on this project?
J: Creatively, I do a bunch of everything. I draw, paint, do photography, graphic design; am going to study fashion design in Paris in a month.
The first person I reached out to was Gabe, who had asked me to work on his zine. He wasn’t available full-time, so I reached out to other people for help too. I don’t personally know many creatives. 5 of 6 people in my team I had never met before.
M: “Class of 2020”.
J: Initially started with a friend, he suggested the name. He quit a week later. Class of 2020 does not exclusively share the work of graduating students. We’re all “graduating” from 2020 together, there’ve been many lessons to learn as a world.
Adults may not take young people seriously, but we do know how we want our future to look like. I wanted to collaborate with people believe will be able to change the future, and inspire others to take steps towards creativity.
M: How much did Covid-19 affect the project?
J: Had it not been for Covid-19, I wouldn’t have had the time for the project. This difficult time has forced me to reflect on what I wanted to do: something for charity, something to make people feel included, heard.
M: Are young creatives addressing Covid-19, #BLM, US elections through their work?
J: We’ve chosen for our profits to go to a Covid-19 relief fund and equal justice groups. Yes, more young creatives are addressing political issues more because we’re feeling more directly affected by them, having a “deadline” to save the world.
M: Was there a difference between the creatives you featured from different countries?
J: The people we featured were nominated by the team. Maybe because of social media we have a more shared, global mindset. I didn’t come across any cultural misunderstandings within the team, either.
Mainstream media tends to focus on musicians, painters, photographers. I wanted to feature even non-“traditional” creatives.
M: Should “diversity” be an obligation?
J: It shouldn’t be an obligation, but it should be considered. A lot of mainstream content isn’t, so we kind of have to take it upon ourselves to promote work from marginalised groups.
But ultimately, good work is good work.
Social Media
M: Are young people equipped to talk about serious issues on social media?
J: I get 90% of my news from Instagram. Creatives can be SJWs. There’s also a culture of telling each other what they think. Someone might tell me I shouldn’t have said something because of whatever reason; I think it’s great we can push each other to be better allies. And the people I surround myself with read, think before they speak.
M: The currency on social media is attention. Memes get attention. Do young people think about discussing social issues / their work in the same way they think about memes?
J: It depends on the individual, but it’s definitely an issue. Carelessly posting black squares after George Flyod’s murder showed some people’s lack of understanding, “believing” something to follow a trend.
M: Today, everyone’s a rapper, or photographer. Has social media “allowed” rappers and photographers to have a platform, or are these titles “easy access” to credibility?
J: I’m glad people are more able to enjoy these creative forms, but it also diminishes the credibility given who’ve truly invested in their work. TikTok means you can go viral for dancing, but it doesn’t make you a dancer. It makes sense, though, when people’s work go hand-in-hand with who they are to feature themselves and their work together.
M: To “break out” as a creative today, must you be good-looking?
J: It helps, but not definitely.
Buy a copy of Class of 2020.
Update on life
- The novel is being written, at 36,000 / 50,000 words in. With daily revisions and self-doubt, however, the next 14,000 are looking to come even more slowly.
- Last week, I sent out an undisclosed number of resumes to companies not for-hire, in response to listings I did not qualify for, to emails whose reliability of personnel who run them I have no idea. The wait is now testing my faith in the notorious Lady Gaga’s quote, “There can be a 100 people in a room…” She better be right.
2020 has been so far an immense, outward challenge. “Acceleration” is the buzz finance/business journalist word of the moment. Evolution means the weak will perish and the strong will prevail, but contrary to “weak” and “strong” as identifiers of people I’ve been confronted with a personal truth: they can happen within ourselves too, and it’s up to me to kill my (weak) babies and nurture my strong ones. My new hope is to look back on 2020 (2021 too? How long will this drag out) with pride than regret, but in the meantime I only have uncertainty to content myself with.
