Honouring and learning from youth voices (February 2024)

Summary

As part of the Lancet's Child and Adolescent Health Spotlight, the journal called for young people around the world aged 18–25 years to lend their perspectives and lived experiences on the two key spotlight asks:

1. That children must be immediately prioritised in health and social policies; children and young people deserve attention in their own right, and not only because they are an indispensable foundation for a sustainable future.
2. That governments and health providers should prioritise health equity for children and young people, within and between countries.

The Lancet received 104 submissions in Chinese, English, Portuguese and Spanish, many of which have been published as essays in Lancet publications. This article in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health summarises the key themes that were raised in the submissions received, including:

• the need for honest conversations with trusted adults about less talked-about areas including sex and death.
• the mental health impacts of attacks on transgender young people.
• the issues associated with living with a chronic illness as a young person.
• the importance of non-tokenistic youth engagement in research.