Channel Kindness is proud to announce our 2018 class of Reporters – 50 young people strong, representing every region of the country.

Our team poured over hundreds of applications and – after reading their thoughtful essays and watching their creative and captivating videos – these young people stood out. And this weekend, we had the delight and privilege to meet them in person at our annual Channel Kindness Convening in New York City.

On planes, trains, and buses these young people arrived, welcoming each other, getting to know one another with curiosity and kindness. Kirah from Washington, Taylor from Indiana, Deshlee from Tampa, Nicholas from Walnut Creek and so many more. As I watched them add each other on Instagram and compare class schedules, I thought about the reasons we started Channel Kindness.

We wanted young people to have a platform on which they could convene, contribute to, and lead meaningful conversations. We wanted to invite them to tap into the diversity, idealism, passion, collaboration, and tech savvy of this generation and continue to leverage it for good. We wanted them to ask good questions, dive into relationships with curiosity and lift up their voices across their various communities.

We had timelines, checklists, and dashboards of how that would happen but now, as I ate my tenth Ghiradelli sea salt chocolate and watched the young people find their seats, their new friends, and their voices, I realized we hadn’t brought them together to talk to them about how to do it, we had brought them together to watch them do it; for them to teach us.

The stories that these young people will tell on Channel Kindness will be important, provocative, kind, and challenging – and I’ll read every single one of them. The thing that I can’t put on a check list or timeline is how this invitation will change these young people and how their acceptance will change us.

I sat on the stage for an hour with them, just answering questions from “How do you think about your role as a mother and an Executive Director?” to “How did Born This Way Foundation start?” and everything in between. I sat – in meaningful conversation – with these incredible young people and for 36 hours, I got to keep it (and them) to myself. Now, I am so proud to invite you in and introduce you to the hearts and minds that make up Channel Kindness.

Now that they’re not just mine, and we’re putting them on a much larger stage for all of you to appreciate and be inspired by, I have two favors to ask of you:

• Follow Channel Kindness on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram so you don’t miss a single story from these awesome young people
• Submit an idea for a Channel Kindness story! The Reporters are hard at work on their first stories of the year and need ideas about the acts of kindness and compassion – big and small – happening in your life.

My job is to eat chocolate and get out of the way of these fearless leaders – to use every chance I have to talk, write, and think to amplify their voices, their stories, and the world through their eyes. To each and every one of our Channel Kindness Reporters, I hope we make you proud, because you’ve floored us.

Welcome and Thank You!