Did you know there are 3 billion Generation Z in the world? For the past year, I’ve worked with Partnership for Young London, to take a deep dive into the lives of generation Z in London, Gen Z versus the world is the conclusive segment to Partnership for Young London’s two year journey looking into the lives of London's Generation Z cohort during the Pandemic.
The projects funded by Trust for London, comprised 4 parts: The Mapping Young London report & Guide to Gen Z briefing paper, and a series of virtual and in-person Gen-z ‘link-up’ events and focus groups.
Towards the end of my tenure, Partnership for Young London commissioned me as a producer at bare radicals from ends and Badmilk Ldn to produce Gen-Z Versus the world, a 3 part mini-doc which highlights some of the recurring themes that came up for GenZ in the report.
The 3 part mini-series, now available on Youtube, followed the experiences of a group of young people from London, in a focus group. They spoke about the differences and similarities between generations before them. They also spoke about the benefits that social media has had on their activism. Part 2 also followed the story of Gina Bell, a photographer and multidisciplinary artist and activist I had the pleasure to interview.
As far as professional development goes, this project was a bittersweet end of my time at Partnership for Young London but an exciting start to my new venture as founder bare radicals at ends A production house and collective that makes creative productions that focus on social justice. This project acted as an eye-opener of what it takes to move a video production forward, whilst working with a client in the youth service sector. In the course of a few months I learnt what it takes to make good content, how to handle set-backs and delays. I also learnt the difference between working for a client in the public sector versus that of a private sector business. Whilst the first is more impactful, budget constraint requires a ‘wearing many hats approach’ but this was not fully a setback - I gained insight and experience from being mostly a producer to having skills in direction and scriptwriting.
Being a part of the overall research project, I learnt how different contexts and locations impact groups of young people. In the future, I’d like to gain access to funding which allows me to continue this project, which compares and show-cases groups of Gen-z across the world.
By Kelsea Sellars