The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation wanted to bring youth voices to TED 2015, to speak on this year’s theme: “Truth or Dare.” Since we’ve taught film, ourselves, throughout our careers, we already knew dozens of youth media organizations around the country. Partnering with nonprofits in New York City, Baltimore and the Bay Area, we worked with young people, ages 16 – 21, on first-person narratives, supporting them through the filmmaking process. The films were promoted in the TED blog “Further Reading on Ideas Worth Spreading.”
Lily Yu, 19, joined the Bay Area Video Coalition’s film program during high school and is now a first-year student at the California Institute of the Arts, where she studies filmmaking and art. She grew up in West Oakland, fenced in by freeways and filled with pollution that contributes to her sister’s asthma. “Getting groceries is a chore when the closest supermarket is a 30-minute bus ride away,” Yu says.