On November 8th I had the opportunity to attend the Teen Vogue Meet Up that took place at 584 Broadway in New York City. It was a wonderful experience to build connections and walk out with new friends. The one that I attended in NYC concluded the rest of the other meetups for Fall 2017, which took place in other major cities across the US including LA, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Austin.

Beginning at six o’clock, young activists, innovators and creators found themselves amongst each other while enjoying mocktails and hors-d'oeuvres. Afterwards, about a half hour in, we all listened to a panel discussion featuring media strategist Paola Ramos, Jamira Burley, who is the head of youth engagement and skills of education, and De’Ara Balenger, a cultural-political strategist and former head of engagement of Hillary for America. The panel discussion was lead by Angela of Power 105.1’s Breakfast Club and it was mainly about the personal lives of the three women who spoke on issues of today, what they do and why they are who they are.

This rolled right into the workshops set up for the guests like myself in which we got into groups and came up with ideas about what it takes to be a leader. In the second workshop, we got into different groups to discuss voting and what it will take to get more people to vote and make a difference.

The storming up of ideas with other young minds like my own was great to be around and the whole vibe was just amazing overall. It was a wonderful networking opportunity in which a good amount of individuals brought together million dollar ideas towards a better future for our society.

I’m glad I got the chance to go, and thank you to Teen Vogue and the editor in chief Elaine Welteroth! This is definitely something that should occur more often…annually maybe? Hopefully.

P.S. The Meetups were only the kickoff to the actual Teen Vogue Summit which is taking place from December 1st to 2nd in LA. Yes, this is a two-day experience which Yara Shahidi will be present as well as Amandla Stenberg, Ava DuVernay, Yvonne Orji, Chloe and Halle, and many more. Elaine also announced at the NYC meet up that Hillary Clinton herself will be there so if you are free on those dates and you’d like to experience the full thing (and not just a slice of the cake like me) then you can get yourself a ticket here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/teen-vogue-summit-tickets-37128921604#tickets Enjoy!