My social action journey started before I came to Cambridge. As a teenager, I founded an online, community-led magazine funded by the Civic Square Dream Fund. We focused on social and political topics written by young people from marginalised backgrounds and worked with our community to increase young people’s participation and understanding of current affairs. My passion for making young people’s voices heard and what I had learnt in my HSPS (Sociology) degree led me to found the multi-award-winning campaign ‘Make it Mandatory’ at the end of my first year in Cambridge.
My campaign calls on the government to change education policy regarding RSE or relationships and sex education, which is a compulsory class for all children in England and Wales up to the age of 16. My campaign called on the government to extend this up until 18 years old so that older teenagers could access this vital education, given that much data showed them to be vulnerable to domestic abuse, misinformation and other serious social issues. For example, out of the 2.1 million people who experienced domestic abuse in England and Wales in 2023 a significantly higher proportion of people aged 16 to 19 years old suffered domestic abuse compared to all other age groups (ONS,2023). Moreover, according to the charity ‘Let Me Know’ 7 in 10 young people have suffered some kind of abuse but 6 in 10 cannot tell if a relationship is abusive and 1 in 4 young men agree with Andrew Tates’s misogynistic views on women (LMK,2023). Given that the government’s own data shows that older teenagers are one of the most at-risk age groups for domestic abuse and unhealthy relationships – and the likes of Andrew Tate are misleading an unprecedented number of young boys in particular, I thought this age group needed to be able to access inclusive lessons on healthy relationships, consent and much more, as education is just one part, but an important part nevertheless of beginning to tackle the issue of teenage relationship abuse from a prevention standpoint.
In the last two years, I have with the help of my colleagues and friends conducted research, held workshops in schools and worked with the likes of the BBC Panorama Team, the stars of Netflix’s hit show ‘TopBoy’ and Cosmopolitan Magazine to bring much-needed attention to the issue of teenage relationship abuse, as young people have been frequently left out of conversations on gender-based violence with more focus put on older adults. My campaign’s petition achieved almost 100,000 signatures and a high level of cross-party political support, which led to my campaign becoming a formal recommendation in parliament by the Women and Equalities Parliamentary Committee.
Furthermore, earlier this year the government publicly announced that my campaign ask was now put under formal consideration! This has not been an easy feat, particularly whilst juggling a full-time undergraduate degree at Cambridge but the resilience and brilliance of the young people I work with give me much strength and more importantly, hope for a brighter future for us all.
