Be seen. Be heard.
All potential but no power. Read on to discover why we're backing young people globally and campaigning with British Youth Council to extend the voting age to 16 years in the UK.
Our Global Campaign Partnership
We’ve always operated outside of the beauty industry, seeking change where other brands saw risks. We are not afraid to challenge the status quo and to find the right solutions. This is not our first rodeo.
We’re launching a global campaign to amplify youth voices in public life. The UN Secretary-General has identified working with and for young people as one of the organisation’s top priorities. We’ll be working in partnership with the Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth. They are global advocates for addressing the needs and rights of young people around the world.
In partnership with The United Nations, we have launched with the release of a joint report, ‘Be Seen Be Heard: Understanding young people’s political participation’. The report is a snapshot at a critical moment to understand preconceptions and structural barriers preventing young people from participating in public life, along with recommendations to address these challenges for the benefit of societies around the world. The report includes findings from the largest-ever survey carried out by The Body Shop in December 2021, covering 26 countries with 27,043 respondents in total, over half of which were under age 30.
British Youth Council Partnership
Every day decisions are made about the future of our planet and the communities who call it home, but without the right to vote young people have no voice, and no power in shaping the world they will inherit.
We want to change this. That’s why we’re campaigning with the British Youth Council to extend the voting age in the UK general elections to 16 years for the next three years.
The British Youth Council (founded over 70 years go) empower young people aged 25 and under across the UK to have a say and be heard, and to create social and political change. They support young people to get involved in their communities and democracy locally, nationally and internationally, making a difference as volunteers, campaigners, decision-makers and leaders.
Join the conversation
Young people deserve to be involved in conversations about their future. Our Twitter channel @thebodyshopsg will be the space for real-time opinions, thoughts, and updates on the campaign.
Have your say - do you agree with votes at 16?
Tell us what you think @thebodyshopsg
Using hashtags: #VotesAt16 and #BeSeenBeHeard
How you can help
For lasting and systemic change, we want to change legislation in the UK. We must continue to fight for our voice to be heard more than once.We can all put in the work and raise our voices. If you want to support us in this campaign, we’ve created these strong downloadable social posts for you to share with the people you know.
Simply click the link to download and copy paste the caption (these are only guidance’s, feel free to tweak).
What are we doing?
We’ve always operated outside of the beauty industry, seeking change where other brands saw risks. We are not afraid to challenge the status quo and to find the right solutions. This is not our first rodeo. We’ve launched a global campaign to amplify youth voices in public life and a UK campaign to extend the voting age to 16 & 17-year olds.
Young people are part of the solution
We’ve never been cynical about the potential of the human spirit. As our founder Dame Anita Roddick once said, ‘cynicism is what passes for insight when courage is lacking.’ We believe young people have all the potential, but right now, they have none of the power.
The future of the world cannot be left to a bunch of bureaucrats in sharp suits. Young people are creative, open-minded and full of the right questions. We know they’ve got the imagination, energy and grit to stick up for what’s right. They are politically active, demonstrating time and time again that they are prepared to show up for our community, our planet and our future.
So why do we keep underestimating them? There has never been a more critical time for them to have a voice. We’re going to campaign hard to make sure they do.
Get informed. Get outraged. Get inspired.
We work closely with experts to plan all of our campaigns. We’d love for you to keep reading about these issues so here’s a list of resources.
We work closely with experts to plan all of our campaigns. We’d love for you to keep reading about these issues so here’s a list of resources. To learn more about the facts and figures of youth participation in national parliaments globally, read this report from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). Not into report reading? Check out this infographic of the same info condensed. Explore the UN’s Youth 2030 Strategy through visiting this one-stop-shop knowledge portal. Here you can pick up valuable tools and resources for supporting Youth 2030 implementation as well as track global progress year-by-year.
Want to know more about youth policy in your country?These handy factsheets from YouthPolicy.org will help. Read this literature review from the EU Commission and Council of Europe for an overview of youth political participation in Europe. This paper provides a breakdown of the different jargon and info used to discuss youth political participation. This policy paper on Quality Youth Participation and Inclusion in Institutions from the European Youth Forum (EYF) could help you lobby your local institution on youth inclusion.
This from the Office of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth (OSGEY) and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) will give you loads of info on how gender and representation intersect. You could read this from First ASEAN Youth Development Index detailing youth development across the region (see Domain 4: Participation and Engagement). The African Youth Leaders study is an international research project looking to develop a youth leadership movement and they’re always looking for people to get involved.