Center Portrait: New Youth Advisory Board Members Declare: 'YOUTH AREN'T FOR SALE!'

Youth Advisory Board members Tristan Kading and Nell Geiser speak at the September demonstration against the advertising industry’s Golden Marble Awards in New York

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The Center’s Youth Advisory Board (YAB) equips young people who are fed up with aggressive marketing in their schools to do something about it. Working with the Center, YAB members create and circulate flyers and petitions in their schools, hold workshops and protests and organize their friends against commercialism. YAB members are currently working on the second issue of UNPLUG!, a ‘zine featuring essays, comics and poetry; and a website is in the works. Three new YAB members, Alex Diamond, Tristan Kading and Nick Salter, will undoubtedly impact the Center’s fight against commercialism in schools.

15-year-old Alex Diamond helped organize a successful student campaign in his Portland, Oregon high school against Jostens exclusive graduation gown contract. “So many kids already don’t want to be in school,” Alex said. “Having to look at ads all day makes them want to be there a lot less. I think that’s wrong.”

Tristan Kading received national attention last spring when his school administration in Stonington, Connecticut punished him for refusing to participate in a McDonald’s Job Skills Assembly. A vegan and animal rights activist, Tristan has been featured in print and broadcast media across the country and inspired many young activists. Tristan received the David and Goliath Award for Confronting Corporate Marketing in Schools at the “Have You Lost Your Marbles?” awards in New York this September.

“It was great to go to New York and be around other young people concerned with the same things that I am,” Tristan said. “I am really looking forward to serving on the Youth Advisory Board.”

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