Could this be the face of a future Prime Minister?
Meet Lillie, she’s 14 years old, has an Instagram profile adorned with selfies, enjoys the occasional blended beverage (Starbucks caramel hot chocolate ), and is the youngest person “ever” to be involved in her home town’s local politics. At the tender age of 11 Lillie joined Portsmouth Youth Parliament, now aged 14 she is the Vice Chair.
My dad got me involved with a small youth group called Portsmouth Youth Parliament who get together every month to decide how they would like to improve their city. Being the youngest person ever to join PYP made me feel incredibly proud. Having a sense of achievement is a really good feeling to have
The groups main objectives for this year are Votes for 16, Child Abuse and PSHE in schools. PYP worked with the local council to provide a workshop for teachers. The aim of the work shop was to stop PSHE from being removed from the school curriculum. PSHE is a focused programme of learning designed to help young people develop the skills, knowledge and understanding to manage their lives.
PSHE is the one class where students are actually taught practical life skills. Learning about cell structures and Shakespeare is all very educational but to be honest it’s not going to help me manage my life. Being taught about money management, how to handle personal issues and job options is what’s going to help me develop as a person. That’s why it was so important to stop PSHE being dropped by schools
In addition to making sure the youth of Portsmouth have their voices heard Lille also dabbles in policing. “I recently joined my local police cadet group and was appointed deputy cadet leader. Cadets is another opportunity for me to learn new skills, and help my community”.
Having had the pleasure of talking to Lillie about her hobbies and desires I’ve been able to pinpoint a recurring theme, that of social responsibility. Lillie has an incredible desire to better herself, which is great in itself, but what makes this desire remarkable is that she wants to use this self advancement to help others on a grand scale. (Hence my opening question, could this be the face of a future Prime Minister?)
I thought about it for a long time and came to the decision that I would like to be involved in something to do with law or politics. So far that ambition hasn’t changed
Having asked her what’s next Lillie said “ I’ve been invited to Westminster to talk about Cities of Service and volunteering for young people. I also have a solo project that involves Osper, I want more young people to know about it. It’s really silly that young people aren’t really taught about money management. I would love to help arrange a talk at the PYP, I want Osper to come down and talk to young people about money, if you want to learn about something you might as well start by doing it”.
Lillie we couldn’t agree more!
Lillie buying gifts for Mothers Day
If you have a story that you would like to share, please email me at sabinak@osper.com
