When Elizabeth Franklin wasn’t old enough to vote, she turned to writing for her school paper as a form of civic participation.
“I'm not really one of those people who are at the forefront of a crowd with a bullhorn. But I did know that I wanted to write,” the recent Parkway West High School graduate told St. Louis on the Air.
As a student journalist, Franklin wrote about Black students’ experiences of busing out of the city to Parkway West through the Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Corp.
She also wrote long-form articles that sought to challenge stereotypes she heard from her classmates about crime in St. Louis, the city where she grew up.
In March, Franklin was named the 2024 Missouri Interscholastic Journalism Association’s Student Journalist of the Year.
Franklin drew from personal experiences in her reporting about complicated subjects like the divide she saw between her west county peers and her family in north county, hoping that her writing would inspire empathy in her peers.
“I saw two staggeringly different realities in both of those areas, like painfully different realities. I know that I can use the power of the pen for good, and I wanted to showcase the challenges and the impacts that those [realities] have on people,” Franklin said.
To learn more about why Elizabeth Franklin had to dig for courage to write for her school’s paper and how she advises St. Louis County Council members on issues that young people care about, listen to the full St. Louis on the Air conversation on Apple Podcast, Spotify and YouTube, or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Ulaa Kuziez, Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Roshae Hemmings is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
