Ayla Johnstone is a 19-year-old student from New Zealand who participated in the third Youth Week event; Youth and Democracy in times of Crisis as a panelist. Ayla’s speech brought the perspective of youth to the conversation and discussed her personal experiences with youth in her community and how youth perceive government. She is the Chairperson of the Franklin Youth Advisory Board (FYAB) and has served on the board for three years. FYAB is a board of volunteer youth from Franklin, Auckland, New Zealand whose central focus is to represent the youth of their community to their local elected decision makers.