Our Work

For the 2022 Midterms, Gen-Z for Change set a goal to mobilize and educate as many young voters as possible in order to ensure their voices were heard at the polls. As a way to show our dedication to these efforts, we hosted a 22-hour Livestream just two weeks before the election, during which we engaged with voters, hosted panel discussions, and conducted interviews with political candidates such as Beto O’Rourke and Anna Eskamani. Additionally, as a way to emphasize Gen-Z’s crucial role in this election cycle, we hosted several Gen-Z candidates running for local office as a way to showcase their work and inspire our viewers.

Apart from those, we also conducted several other live interviews leading up to the election on our TikTok and Instagram, hosting guests such as Val Demmings, Bill Nye, Liza Koshy, Jamaal Bowman, and Gisele Fetterman. Then, for those living in households where political discourse can be difficult around elections, we created our Boomer Bible, a comprehensive list of conservative politicians’ policies across major issues. The goal of this project was to create a resource for progressive Gen-Z voters (and soon-to-be voters) that can be referenced to help educate less progressive relatives and community members about the harmful policies and pernicious ideologies of certain anti-youth politicians. At the same time, we also released an extensive list of Gen-Z for Change-endorsed candidates that we felt would help our country progress on issues that matter while serving our generation and their respective constituents. Leading up to election day, we continued to post relevant voting information across our social media as well as participate in phone-banking sessions with Voters of Tomorrow and Students for (Josh) Shapiro. On election day, members from our team (Claire Simon, Olivia Julianna, Sam Schmir, Zoe Shipley, Jack Petocz, Victoria Hammett, Nandi Perry, Sofia Ongele, Dominique Demetz, and Connor Hesse) had the opportunity to take over Teen Vogue’s Instagram, sharing updates and reminders for young voters throughout the day. (These stories are all pinned as a highlight on Teen Vogue’s Instagram account under Midterms 2022). By the end of the election, we raised $141,000 for Beto O’Rourke, Raphael Warnock, Rochelle Garza, and Mike Collier.

In preparation for the 2022 midterm elections, Gen-Z organizers will visit battleground states across the country to meet with and document interviews with voters, and progressive and Democratic candidates in an effort to mobilize Gen-Z to vote. Meetings include Rochelle Garza, Mike Collier, Celia Israel, Zo Qadri, Charlie Christ, and Anna Eskamani. Several well-known Gen-Z for Change influencers and organizers will participate in the tour — including the Director of Politics & Government Affairs, and a prominent Texas reproductive rights advocate, Olivia Julianna. Julianna went viral on Twitter and raised more than $2 million dollars for abortion funds when Rep. Matt Gaetz attacked her for speaking out about reproductive rights in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent decision. Also on tour is Gen-Z for Change strategist and LGBTQ+ influencer, Jack Petocz and Deputy Executive Director of Gen-Z for Change and content creator, Victoria Hammett.

Watch Battle for the Blue!

In August of 2022, we launched an initiative to uplift and further the efforts of unionizing Amazon workers fighting for fair wages, safe workplace conditions, and a union. We organized a coalition of over 70 TikTok creators with a combined 51 million followers, refusing to monetize our platforms for Amazon. Until Amazon met the demands of the Amazon Labor Union, we would cease all Amazon sponsorships and usage of Amazon’s storefront. While we are proud of this initial effort, we will continue to grow People Over Prime’s coalition and collaborate with like-minded labor unions and organizations to further support Amazon workers.

Visit the People Over Prime website!

As politicians stood idly by after the fall of Roe v. Wade, our team sprung into action and launched our SAFER initiative to help safeguard reproductive care. SAFER (Spam, Assist, Fund, Educate, Register) is an acronym for the efforts we spearheaded to make abortion safer in America. First, we created a tool that automatically generated accurate reviews for Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs), clinics that disguise themselves as abortion providers only to attempt to coerce women to not terminate their pregnancies. Then, we took to social media by using our collective platforms to raise awareness about these deceptive clinics, which included writing a press release with Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) as well as coordinating with Yelp’s policy lead. As a direct result of these actions, Yelp added a disclaimer to all CPCs, stating that they provide limited medical services and may not have licensed medical professionals. 

Furthermore, we shared ways that community members could assist those seeking abortions by volunteering in a range of initiatives. Finally, we created a joint abortion fund that distributed all donations evenly among 50 local abortion clinics throughout the United States. Olivia Julianna, a Gen-Z for Change member, turned a Twitter feud with Matt Gaetz into a fundraising opportunity, driving over two million dollars to the fund. We used our platform to educate people about the importance of reproductive rights, generating millions of views. Finally, we encouraged people to register to vote for politicians who would protect reproductive rights across the country.

Visit the S.A.F.E.R website!

Conservative political pundit Laura Ingraham created a tipline to report teachers for… teaching? Ingraham touted that some teachers were attempting to “destroy a child's innocence in the name of tolerance.” To prevent making teaching an even more difficult job, we created code that sent in fake tips to nullify the tipline.

Visit the Let Them Teach website!

Since December of 2021, Starbucks locations have joined in the historic fight for labor rights in the United States, unionizing stores and calling for better working conditions and benefits. Starbucks has continually refused to bargain with workers in good faith and also attempted to hire scab workers through online applications. In February, we created code that sent fake job applications to union-busting Starbucks locations to ensure that workers’ demands were met.

Visit the Change is Brewing website!

In April of 2022, thousands of Ralph’s workers prepared to go on strike, demanding higher wages. Ralph’s pre-emptively tried to hire scab workers, so we created code that flooded the job application pool to hamper union-busting efforts. Contracts were reached before a walkout occurred.

Visit the Wreck It Ralphs website!

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin created a tipline for teachers, including “critical race theory,” in their curriculum. Critical race theory, a sociological framework, is weaponized by Republicans to sensationalize a huge nothing-burger. Simply put, Republicans do not want an accurate depiction of race relations in the United States. So, to avoid making teachers’ jobs more difficult, and to troll bigoted Republicans, we created code that people could use to spam the tiplines with lyrics of songs or whatever they imagined.

Visit the CRT Mail website!

During the Covid-19 surge in 2020, Gen-Z for Change knew it was imperative to educate young people on the dangers of Covid and the ways in which people can protect themselves and their loved ones. In response, we partnered with the group Made To Save and launched our creator network. We called on dozens of TikTok creators to post videos correcting covid-19 misinformation, encouraging people to get vaccinated, and sharing social distancing tips. Additionally, our creators were able to sit down with Dr. Fauci to ask him generation-z’s questions about Covid and vaccines. Dr. Fauci’s answers were then shared to our creators’ massive audiences. By the end of this project, we accumulated more than 12.7 million views on TikTok sharing accurate covid-19 information and encouraging vaccines.