Growing up in a pandemic

Every year in August we celebrate International Youth Day (Aug. 12), as established by the UN General Assembly on Dec. 17, 1999 “to bring youth issues to the attention of the international community and celebrate the potential of youth in today’s global society.”

This year’s theme is anchored on youth innovation for human and planetary health, with focus on transforming food systems for the sustenance and sustainability of the future. This month, however, also provides the perfect opportunity to meet the next generation, now only 11 years old at their oldest, who by the time the last of them is born in 2025, will number almost two billion, the largest generation in history — Generation Alpha or Gen Alpha.

The children of Millennials and the younger siblings of Gen Z, and the only generation born entirely within the 21st century, theirs is a world potentially so unlike that of their predecessors.