For black millennials, speaking out, making our passions known and explaining our struggles has never been easier. Every click, tap or swipe can bring awareness, knock down stereotypes and inspire action.
More than just televised, our revolution is being tweeted, shared, posted, pinned, Facebooked and Instagrammed and has the potential to go viral daily.
And on this weekend in August, we’ve taken over The Root. We’re calling it Young, Black and Viral, and it means all the features you’re reading have been written by and about bright young minds under the age of 30.
Whether it’s an intro to all this young, new hype, a discovery about how hip-hop’s boundaries are expanding or an exploration of a new world of dating, we hope you click around and gain insight into some of what’s on our minds.
We’re also putting you up on the 20-somethings (and even those younger) you should know, whether they’re scorching up your screen or crafting tweets that make you think. And if your goal is to be more social-savvy, we’ve hosted a Google Hangout with three of the Web’s most influential millennials, who offer their insider tips on how you can expand your own imprint on the Internet.
Like generations before us, we’re crafting our own narratives and using our voices to make change. The platforms may be different, but the possibilities are still endless. Especially when we're in charge.
Meet the voices behind this weekend’s content:
Terron Moore, 26, is The Root's social media editor and a guilty-pleasure aficionado. Some of those pleasures include macaroni and cheese, retro YouTube viral videos, searching for the lost members of Destiny’s Child and reruns of MTV’s The Hills.
Breanna Edwards, 24, The Root's newswriter, has an unhealthy obsession with making up new deep-conditioning treatments for her hair, making green smoothies, rewatching Disney movies (and singing along to all the songs) and making fun of any beaches that aren’t Antiguan.
Diamond Sharp, 25, is an editorial fellow at The Root. She is also a Netflix connoisseur, grocery don and lifelong Chicago supremacist living in exile in Washington, D.C.
Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele, 27, is a staff writer at The Root. She learned how to float in the Aegean Sea. Her favorite comedian is Paul Mooney. (That rhymed.)
Erin C.J. Robertson, 27, a summer intern at The Root, loves the color purple—she wears it often—sweets and street fairs. She’s been a bit of a vagabond, having lived in Northern California, Utah, Indiana, northern Japan and metro D.C.
Taryn Finley, 22, is a summer intern at The Root. She’s also a Saturday-morning-cartoon enthusiast and lover of avocados. She's devised a 12-month master plan to find the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow and watch every episode of Martin twice; plan B is to become Blue Ivy’s baby sitter.