One of the pressing challenges for youths in this present day and age is the stereotypical view that the adult world has generalised, that most youths don’t know what they are doing, and they can’t comment and bring fresh and innovative ideas to the world. I had the opportunity to work on three film sets, at that time I was only nineteen and happened to be the youngest member on the crew, I was mainly working with the director and the D.O.P (Director of Photography), there were numerous amount of times where I suggested we shoot a scene in a different way and my suggestions were overlooked, at the end of the day what they planned to shoot will come out wrong and go back to shooting what I suggested, I still kept offering my suggestions and the same thing kept happening. At first, I thought it just happen to be with that particular director, but I soon came to realise that it was 90 per cent of the adult community as the same exact thing happened on the two other sets I worked on. I am sure I am not the only youth facing this challenge. Does youths who are not mentally tough will shy away and think that they are not good enough while some of us youths that have a very tough mentality will push past this and try to start our own business or put our ideas out in a different way and most times we tend to refuse help from the adults around them, sometimes when they do go forward to the adults for help they shrug them away and say thinks like; “go and read your books”.
Research shows that the number of young people starting businesses has risen by 70 percent since 2006, in 2006 there were 145,104 companies founded by people under the age of 35 by 2013 that count had gone up to 247,049. Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation, said: “These statistics show that younger generations are no longer pinning all their hopes on finding the perfect job, they are taking their destiny into their own hands and creating a business around a skill, a passion or a hobby. According to UnLtd, more than 55 per cent of young people aged 16 to 25 now want to set up their own firm. And a report from Santander estimates that 80,000 UK university students run a business, with a quarter of these planning to turn it into a career when they graduate.
Matthew Rock, editor-in-chief, DueDil said: “It’s only when you look at the evidence that you see how great the shift is in young people deciding to start a business as opposed to getting a job. This is data we will continue to watch to see if the young continue to run these start-ups as the economy picks up.” The Dueldil and Enterprise Nation figures show 74 per cent of these young firms are run by men, while 26 per cent are founded by women. Younger entrepreneurs are now also less likely to co-found. Statistics show 66 per cent in 2006 started-up with a partner, while in 2013 that had dropped to 42 per cent. This trend was also seen in the older age range. The statistics show there was also an increase in those registering companies in the over 35 bracket, with a 55 per cent increase in this age group over the same time period. The figures showed the trend was not solely London-focused. The areas that saw the biggest percentage rise in young founders were: North Ayrshire, with a 169 per cent increase between 2006 and 2013; Blaenau Gwent at 161 per cent; the Western Isles, 150 per cent; West Dunbartonshire, 144 per cent; Midlothian, 117 per cent; Merthyr Tydfil, 113 per cent; and Greater London with a 110 per cent rise.
We youths are not just starting meaningless businesses or copying what is already out there, no we are changing and shaping the future our future. In 2016 Kylie Simonds who was only thirteen at the time invented a back pack know as the “I pack”. The function of this back pack was simply make kids undergoing chemotherapy to feel more stylish, features of the back pack included stabilizing internal rods, a pump, a controller, and a coil to hold the medicine bag. This invention won Kylie the Patent award at the UCONN Invention convention a year late.
According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, a person infected with the flu virus could spread the disease to up to 17 other people on an airplane, mostly through coughing and sneezing. When Raymond Wang learned that fact in 2014, the high school junior got to work on a device that could minimize the virus' spread. He’s the inventor of the $10 Global Inlet Director — a curved piece of plastic that can redirect the flow of air inside an airplane cabin. When multiple units are installed, they can reduce disease transmission by up to 55 times. The invention earned Wang the top prize at this year's Intel Science and Engineering Fair, the Gordon E. Moore Award.
After realizing that his grandfather's night-time wandering could lead to a dangerous fall or injury, the 17-year-old from New York decided to develop a solution. His resulting invention, the Safe Wander button, allows family members to see when some relative leaves his or her bed and monitor their activity via a mobile app that stores data over the long term. Families can then bring that information to a doctor for real-time updates on the patient's condition. The product won Shinozuka $50,000 and the Scientific American Science in Action Award in 2014. He was also selected as a finalist in the Google Science Fair that same year, at just 15 years old. Today, he's the founder of SensaRx, a start-up focusing on integrated healthcare technology.
There are so many young entrepreneurs out there making people’s live better in one way or the other but, yet we don’t see this achievements on major news networks but once a youth goes astray and committees a major crime that is seen on almost every major news outlets. It’s a question that must be asked why the media paints a bad image of us youths and makes it difficult for people to believe we youths are trying to change the world until we make a mind-blowing invention, even after we do that we are still not shown to the world that we are not all bad we all have some sense of excellence in us. I can bet that 90 percent of the readers have not heard the names of the few young inventors that I have mentioned above but they can name me at least two or three youths either linked to a specific crime or killed. The world needs to begin to look at youths in a very new perspective and give us the support and recognition that we need.
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