Teenagers.

To most, they’re hormonal, mythical creatures with a lifeline connected to their phones. They’re not old enough to vote or buy a beer. In some cases, they can be moody and defiant. When I think of teenagers, I think of angsty kids who live their lives tweeting and taking Snapchats.

Many confuse today’s teenagers as being part of the millennial generation, but millennials refer to the group born late 1980’s-1990’s, who reached adulthood in the early 21st century. The impact millennials had--and are still having--is huge. Americans are still getting used to the generation entering civil society as voters and part of the workforce. They’re often referred to as “cutting-edge” or “modern”--whatever you call them, the group is on the front line of what America is going to become.

But teenagers are different. Coming after the millennial generation, researchers call them “post-millennials”, or “Generation Z.” Some call them “plurals,” short for pluralist generation. Either way, today’s teens are generally agreed to have been born in the late 1990's and early 2000's, after the older, now mostly adult generation of millennials. And they’re slowly but surely showing us that maybe millennials are just the tip of the iceberg leading social change.

Generation Z is expected to shake things up even more than millennials did--there are 1.2 billion teens in the world right now, making it the largest share ever. If Republicans are having trouble gaining ground among young adults such as millennials, Generation Z could pose an even greater threat. By 2024, teens will represent 1 in every 10 eligible voters. Regardless of the statistics, it’s becoming clear that teens are capable of having an even greater impact on society and politics than millennials did.

Researcher Morley Winograd told The Washington Post that teens, or “plurals,” are a byproduct of their racially diverse generation, and are in line to be an “adaptive” generation--adaptive generations come immediately after more disruptive ones, i.e. millennials, and when they come of age, they try to adapt and fix the problems older generations caused.

This is demonstrated best in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida that occurred February 14, leaving 17 people dead and at least 14 more with injuries. This tragedy makes it the 18th time a gun was discharged on school grounds in 2018, according to nonprofit Everytown.

After most tragedies similar to Parkland's, the aftermath is to be expected. People will send “thoughts and prayers” in outrage. Some people will blame guns, some will blame mental health and others will even blame the school. Gun control and mental health become a hot topic for about two weeks, with constant media coverage, before falling out of the public’s interest. The same people shouting “enough is enough” will forget about the tragedy and go on with their lives, until another shooting occurs and the cycle starts all over again.

This time, it’s different. The teens who survived the mass shooting aren’t letting the media or anyone else forget the trauma they endured, and are using it to fuel a nationwide campaign for gun control. They named the movement “#NeverAgain,” with the haunting slogan: “Never again will we fear for our lives.”

Among the teens leading the campaign is Emma Gonzalez, whose speech at a gun control rally following the shooting went shockingly viral. At just 18 years old, she stood on national broadcast and said “shame on you” to the politicians accepting money from the NRA, vowing that herself and her classmates will never stop fighting to make Parkland the last mass shooting in America. And she wasn’t exaggerating--hundreds of thousands of students from her high school and others across the nation have joined forces to drive a campaign for gun control.

Just in the two weeks following the incident, students have organized dozens of nationwide school walkouts and protests, and even a march on Washington, D.C. The “March For Our Lives” on March 24th has already generated millions of dollars in donations from celebrities such as Oprah, George Clooney, and Steven Spielberg, and is expected to have over 500,000 attendees. CNN broadcasted a live town hall, in which student survivors, parents of students killed and teachers confronted politicians and the National Rifle Association, demanding rectification. Cameron Kasky, a student who survived the mass shooting, unapologetically confronted Sen. Marco Rubio on the live broadcast to ask: “Will you reject NRA money?” Rubio deflected the question.

It’s unprecedented for a gun control movement to gain this kind of traction so immediately, and even more unprecedented that it’s being lead by teenagers, who don’t even have the authority to make change quite yet. This is a point of concern for many right-wing politicians, who claim the movement as a ploy by liberals to promote gun control because there’s no probable way teenagers could organize such a campaign. Some discredit the movement, saying it’s just an emotional outburst from teenagers who don’t have a true perception of real-life tragedy.

But the emotion driving the campaign is the opposite of a reason to not take it seriously--adolescence is shaped by such emotion, as teens experience vast neurological and hormonal changes that can intensify their moods and desires. It’s what happens during adolescence that shapes teens’ worldviews and opinions, and the Parkland shooting is no exception. Teens have taken the trauma and fear they experienced on February 14, 2018 and are using it to fuel the conversation about gun control. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Delaney Tarr said the movement, created and led by students, is based on emotion. “It is based on passion and it is based on pain. Our biggest flaws--our tendency to be a bit too aggressive, our tendency to lash out, things you expect from a normal teenager--these are our strengths,” she said in a speech to lawmakers in Tallahassee.

And people are paying attention: airlines like Delta and United have cut discounts for the NRA, as well as rental-car companies such as Avis, Enterprise, and Hertz. Best Western hotels did the same thing. Dick's Sporting Goods store announced they will no longer sell assault-style rifles or high-capacity magazines. But it's not just companies that are taking a stand with the students of Parkland. Florida Gov. Rick Scott proposed raising the age limit to buy firearms, and even President Donald Trump has mentioned banning “bump stocks,” which turn semi-automatic weapons into automatic ones. It’s yet to be seen whether politicians will act on their statements or not, but the statements themselves signal a slow but sure road to social change. Former President Barack Obama tweeted: “Young people have helped lead all our great movements. How inspiring to see it again in so many smart, fearless students standing up for their right to be safe; marching and organizing to remake the world as it should be. We’ve been waiting for you. And we’ve got your backs.”

This isn’t the first time teenagers have been the frontrunners of activist movements, and it certainly won’t be the last- in 1899, a young newsboy led a protest against the raised prices of The New York World and the New York Evening Journal, with thousands of newsboys standing on strike on the Brooklyn Bridge for several days. The strike stopped newspaper circulation for most New England cities, and while the World and Journal did not lower their prices, the event inspired those across the country and paved the way for child labor protection laws. In 1955, nine months before Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat on a segregated bus, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin did the same thing and was arrested for disturbing the peace and violating segregation laws. Colvin ended up being one of the five plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case that determined bus segregation in Montgomery unconstitutional. More recently, in 2012, student Malala Yousafzai became an education activist after being shot in the head by a member of the Taliban on her way to school. She then founded a nonprofit dedicated to underprivileged girls’ education and became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize, at just 17 years old.

The students who survived the school shooting are following in similar footsteps as Malala and Claudette, as they continue to press those in power for answers and solutions. In a country known to be complacent with mass shootings, teenagers are working to make sure Parkland and their peers who were killed are not forgotten, and that they did not die in vain.

While Emma Gonzalez, Cameron Kasky, David Hogg and other students campaigning won’t end the war against gun violence, it’s glaringly obvious that their efforts will have a massive and lasting impact on society and the future of gun control. Teenagers will grow up to enter the workforce and vote. They might not have any control over their current legislators right now, but in time, post-millennials will outlast those before them and take their places as politicians and community leaders. Generation Z will grow up to vote each other into office and shape new policies that align with their beliefs.

These teenagers have grown into a world that accepts mass shootings as inevitable, watching events such as the Sandy Hook, Charleston, and Las Vegas massacre simply happen with no rectification--and they are working to make sure those tragedies, as well as their own, will not happen again. They are working to make sure the 17 people killed in their high own school--Alyssa Alhadeff, Scott Beigel, Martin Duque Anguiano, Nicholas Dworet, Aaron Feis, Jaime Guttenberg, Chris Hixon, Luke Hoyer, Cara Loughran, Gina Montalto, Joaquin Oliver, Alaina Petty, Meadow Pollack, Helena Ramsay, Alex Schachter, Carmen Schentrup and Peter Wang--will not become forgotten casualties of America’s gun policies. They are saying: “#NeverAgain.”

So maybe teenagers aren’t so bad after all. Yes, they can be moody, irresponsible and hard to understand. But the teens leading the campaign for gun control represent a tipping point in the way legislators shape policy and treat their constituents, and paint a hopeful picture for the future of America. Teenagers are, without a doubt, making a difference.