Check out our teen spotlights at CPL.
Piper H. is a regular at the Independence YOUmedia space, and has created an art exhibit centered around current youth feelings that you can go and check out now.
Q: What inspired you to start this project?
A: When I started working on this, I was a Girl Scout Cadette and wanted to earn my silver award. Earning a silver award means identifying an issue you care about, and during the pandemic, I never seemed to see youth perspective on anything, and I wanted that to change.
Q: How has the Pandemic been for you? What have been the struggles for youth?
A: It has been hard. As a homeschooler I lost much of the contact I had with friends when I could go to classes, I had more free time than I knew what to do with, and I was lonely. Most of the things that affected adults affected children and teens in similar ways. I could feel the stress when something happened; I went to a BLM march, I watched the votes count up during the election, I did all these things and every teen I met had and was doing the same. This exhibition is trying to show the emotions everyone felt and is feeling.
Q: How are your peers during the pandemic?
A: My friends and I discuss feeling a lot but I never see that in media so the more I spoke with them about how they felt and what they were learning the more I wanted to share that, because we can help! We can change the world and people need to know.
Q: Why are YOUmedia spaces and virtual programs important for teens?
A: I love YOUmedia, I took a lot of the online classes they offered, and I’m hoping to take more now. YOUmedia is important because it can really draw people together, and there are so many things to do, and so many options!
About the Art Exhibit on the Second Floor of Independence Library:
“Hello everyone, for my Girl Scout Silver Award, I have set up an art exhibit around youth feelings during COVID. I felt teen and children’s voices weren’t really taken into account in the last year, so I’ve asked some amazing artists to create something about how they felt dealing with a pandemic. If you would like to add an art piece or draw something, feel free to bring a piece in or draw/write something in a sketchbook that is set up near the exhibit itself. If you bring in a piece of art, please tell a librarian, so that they can label your piece and contact you when the exhibition is over! Thank you to everyone who comes and sees the exhibition. I hope you enjoy it!”
Thanks for sharing your art Piper!
