Abstract
Based on life history interviews with 90 activists in six youth-led social justice activist groups in Aotearoa New Zealand, this chapter articulates different paths into activism for young people. Activism is a key mode of enacting citizenship, but what this means and the actions it demands varied for participants in our study. We unpack the ways that political priorities and influences connected with activists' sense of themselves as civic actors. We then explore how family influence was a primary motivator for feeling the urgency to act and how intergenerational concerns were often articulated differently for Māori and non-Māori activists. The drumbeat of climate change news also played a critical role in motivating action across all six groups, even as they worked on other issues. We conclude by discussing participants' emphasis on the variety of ways to do politics meaningfully, and the need to work intergenerationally to effectively tackle systemic injustices.