Complicated

“This image represents the tangled and confusing lives of young people and the ways that we are able to manage them.”

“In this day and age, many young people feel like they must do everything for fear of missing out. This is sometimes fueled by pressure from family and friends.”

“We can be supportive to our friends and help them to understand that it is ok to say no to things. We can also listen to what is best for ourselves to ensure that we don’t overload.”

Photographer: Liz Solly

This photograph featured in the Youth Booth exhibition showcasing the work of 10 Victorian young people produced over the 2019-2020 Australian summer. Their work captures their collective experience: being digitally savvy, the stress of study, influence of social media, climate change and the impact of poor mental health. These perspectives, along with our video series produced alongside this, allow us to see the complex situations that impact the youth experience of education.

For schools, teachers, parents and policy-makers it highlights the importance of listening and collaboration with young people, particularly when developing policies and implementing practice to build more inclusive communities. For researchers, we hope this exhibition highlights one way to use participatory visual research methods to support and strengthen the voice of youth.

The exhibition adopts a rights-based perspective which emphasises the importance not only of listening to youth, but actively and authentically collaborating on matters that directly affect them.

The study was conducted by researchers Dr Christine Grove and Louisa Trainer in 2019-2020 at Monash University and is funded by the Monash Education Small Grant Award.