Opinion: This 20-something does not speak for Gen Z

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If the goal was to prove every critic right who thinks Gen Z is impulsive, self-centered and addicted to online drama, David Hogg just delivered the template.

Fresh off being elected vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, Hogg had a choice. The 25-year-old activist who survived the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Fla., could’ve used his new platform to organize in battleground states, help flip legislatures or support candidates fighting to protect democracy from the far-right extremism sweeping through school boards, statehouses, county governments and courtrooms across the country.

Instead, he announced that a separate organization of which he is president, Leaders We Deserve, would spend $20 million to elect younger leaders and to take down safe-seat Democratic incumbents. Not election deniers. Not the people pushing abortion bans and book bans. But fellow Democrats. Why? Because, apparently, this is what a “youth movement” looks like now: infighting.

This isn’t strategy. It’s a sideshow complete with a production budget and a news release, but no regard for the moment we’re in.

I say this not just as someone from Gen Z, but as a Black woman in Gen Z who has worked in courtrooms, classrooms and communities. I know what it looks like when politics stops being about people and starts being about clout. But it hits differently when it comes from someone claiming to speak for our entire generation.

But the truth is, David Hogg doesn’t speak for Gen Z.

What he does, unfortunately, is reinforce every lazy stereotype about young leaders: that we’re reckless, unserious, more interested in theatrics than results. And in doing so, he makes it harder for the rest of us to be taken seriously.

Yes, there are real generational tensions in the Democratic Party — gaps in power, representation and urgency. We have all felt them. Many Gen Z members have spoken out and challenged decisions that left our generation behind. But this move isn’t about bridging those divides. It’s not about advancing new ideas or organizing young people into action. It’s about ego.

It’s what happens when someone confuses a personal platform with a movement and mistakes disruption for leadership. It’s what happens when you live in the bubble of political celebrity detached from the real work happening in communities.

And let’s talk about that anointing. It didn’t come from a Gen Z groundswell. It came from older leaders and media figures eager to package a version of our generation that grabs attention, not one that actually represents us. They elevated someone who speaks off the cuff, chases headlines and stirs controversy without seeming to understand the weight of his words. Meanwhile, countless young people, especially in Black and brown communities, are doing the hard work of change without press coverage or a PAC. They’re organizing in their communities, protecting reproductive rights, running for school board and showing up not for credit, but for change.

The young people you don’t see on cable news are out here defending public schools, hosting community health fairs, knocking on doors and keeping neighborhoods afloat. We don’t have time for political vanity projects. We’re not chasing headlines, we’re chasing justice.

So when someone with a national spotlight uses it to start a fight inside his own party, it doesn’t feel revolutionary. It feels irresponsible. It feels like yelling “fire” in a crowded theater and calling it leadership.

Somehow, David Hogg has been positioned as the voice of Gen Z. Not because he built a movement, but because he built a brand. Not because he listens, but because he’s loud. But let’s be clear: Being young doesn’t mean being right. And holding a title doesn’t mean you know how to lead.

If he truly wanted to drive change, he’d be fighting for the rights of those most at risk — people whose voices are silenced, whose votes are suppressed, whose futures are under attack. He’d be standing with the vulnerable, not turning his fire inward. But that kind of work requires humility. And it doesn’t trend.

Gen Z deserves better. We deserve to be taken seriously, not packaged, marketed and sold. We deserve leaders rooted in community, not ego. And we deserve to build a future focused on justice, not sideshows pretending to be revolutions.

While Hogg livestreams his takedown tour, the rest of us in Gen Z will keep doing the real work. Quietly. Consistently. And in service of something bigger than ourselves.

Haley Taylor Schlitz is an attorney, writer and former public school teacher based in St. Paul.