After surviving the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Alfonso Calderon became a gun control activist. Gavin Grimm, whose high school barred him from using the boys restoom, became a brilliant transgender rights advocate. In the summer of 2017, four teenagers founded Zero Hour, a national climate movement.

These are just a few of the millions of informed and powerful activists who were changing history at age 16. They’ve addressed the United Nations, prepared Supreme Court cases, transformed schools and communities, and challenged corporations and policymakers at every level of government.

One thing they couldn’t do is vote. And it’s time to change that.

Read the full article at Buzzfeed News.

Karen Dolan directs the Criminalization of Race and Poverty Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. Theo Wuest is a Next Leader at the Institute for Policy Studies.

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