YouthLoom
Today’s adolescents and youth are growing up with expanding access to education, information, technology, health services and new possibilities for learning, work and connection. Much of our investment in young people is rightly designed to widen these opportunities and equip them to make healthier, safer and more informed choices. But there is a question beneath all of these investments that deserves far more attention: when a young person knows what they want, or what is good for them, how much power do they actually have to act on it?
Today’s adolescents and youth are growing up with expanding access to education, information, technology, health services and new possibilities for learning, work and connection. Much of our investment in young people is rightly designed to widen these opportunities and equip them to make healthier, safer and more informed choices. But there is a question beneath all of these investments that deserves far more attention: when a young person knows what they want, or what is good for them, how much power do they actually have to act on it?
This is what makes agency so consequential. It sits in the space between opportunity and outcome: between knowing and doing, aspiration and possibility, voice and influence. A service can be available without feeling accessible. A young person can be heard without having influence. A choice can exist without being realistically actionable. Agency, therefore, is not simply about making a decision; it is about having the confidence, support, resources and room to act on that decision.
Perhaps this should also change how we think about progress in adolescent and youth well-being. Beyond asking whether young people received information, accessed a service, participated in an initiative or acquired a skill, there is another question worth asking: Did it increase their ability to navigate the next decision? That next decision may concern seeking help, continuing education, entering work, negotiating a relationship, questioning what they encounter online, or choosing a different path altogether.
Because expanding opportunities matters. But the deeper test may be whether adolescents and youth can translate opportunity into agency, and agency into a future they have a meaningful role in shaping.
And that leaves us with a question worth discussing: if agency is so central to well-being, are we doing enough to understand, strengthen and measure it?
