We all know the stereotypical teenager; lazy, selfish, and aggressive. Well, at Colchester sixth form’s day of action, this stereotype was well and truly rebutted. 

At Colchester Sixth form college, some students study Citizenship GCSE.  Part of being a citizen is about campaigning for change and making your environment a better place. Students on the course have a day of action to put this into practice. The students set up stalls for what they are campaigning for, with some bringing guest speakers such as the Terrence Higgins trust.  

Walking around I was met with tons of stalls ranging from mental health to environmental protection and feminism. I learnt things I did not know from these stalls such as the ‘pink tax’ which refers to the inequality between women’s products and men's, such as razors. I spoke to some of the stallholders to find out more about what they were advocating for and why. Firstly, talking to the pair running the men’s mental health stall they said this, ‘We believed that men’s mental health is an important topic that needs to be discussed’ I then asked them about their stall and how they prepared for the day ‘We built a power point and found charities and organizations that campaigned for men’s mental health being Movember and Mind as we felt that they were the best fit for our stall. Moving onto the stall about the pink tax I spoke to the students about their stall, ‘Pink tax is a serious issue that needs to be tackled, petitions have been made to the government several times that have been turned down and we wanted our stall to get more people to sign these petitions. In preparing our stall we made a website about pink tax and the problem surrounding it and the inequality it creates, 'Their stall contained snippets from their website with facts and examples of pink tax. 

All the stalls were a vibrant representation of current and very urgent campaigns. I was particularly struck by the stall about the environment which not only had information and visual displays but a delicious looking bake sale! All the teenagers I spoke to were passionate, well-informed, and active citizens.