This month’s youth spotlight is a rising high school junior making a large impact on educating youth in Massachusetts. In July of 2021, Zainab Anwar started Zenerations Massachusetts — a branch of the larger platform Zenerations. Zenerations is an organization that produces and shares teen based content such as articles, videos, and creative pieces on current events, pop culture, and identity that is created by and for Generation Z. Currently, Zainab is serving as the director of Zenerations Massachusetts, which she founded because she was inspired by how the larger organization created informative articles and posts that were targeted to a teen audience. She further explained how she started her branch during the pandemic because there were issues occurring in the world that were becoming more and more prominent during that time, and platforms such as Instagram (where Zenerations has the most impact with over 1 million followers) were becoming crucial for the spread of accurate information.

Additionally, Zainab has expanded Zenerations Massachusetts to her local high school, adding over 50 members. She leads her large group in writing articles on various current topics and creating illustrations that condense the key aspects of the articles into infographics to post on Instagram. Additionally, Zainab conducts large-scale fundraisers with Zenerations Massachusetts: the first fundraiser the club held this year raised $1,175 to support children in foster care. So far, Zenerations Massachusetts is one of the most successful branches overall, and you can learn more about the branch on their website —

https://zenerationsmass.wixsite.com/genz

~Anshika Shekhar, IAGB Youth Member