Medium can be a useful sandbox to use as a proving ground.
The thing about reaching young people is, you can't preach to them. It doesn't work. Remember? And everybody always wants to preach to the young, particularly from a place of regret.
But what worked to be successful for previous generations, won't work for the ones that follow. The entire landscape has changed dramatically. Also true that what used to define success no longer does, for obvious and legit reasons. It didn't always lead to great outcomes, and even when it did, there was a price tag to it that somebody had to pay yet received no benefit for footing the bill.
When you're young, certain things just stick with you, things that happen, things people say. You incorporate them like a jigsaw puzzle into how see and operate in the world.
Like, I remember one of my high school teachers going on this super dorky riff about discovering he was allergic to tea. It was so embarrassing (for him) and funny as hell but I learned the iimportance of being open to trying new things, because that dorkfest stayed with me. Obviously, I adored that teacher.
That could be a reflective short story that would be appropriate on Medium, told in fiction form (or not).
And then that lesson, which was originally given to 75 students (band) is out there for millions of other young people from here on out.
Confidence is another issue that keeps being brought up. Young men have no confidence.
For me, my acquisition of confidence began with stories of my dad's, about when my older brother was born, about trials and tribulations of figuring things out, boot camp drama, being open with his fears and insecurities and how he either white knuckles his way through them or reasoned his way past them.
Those would work in Medium format too, again told in fictional form as l, like, a scene in a play but it's a stand alone story. Kind of like what I did with Serendipity, but not narrated with internal dialog like I do.
You've for stories in your life. You've heard other stories as a writer, you can imagine plenty of others.
If you want to reach young men, don't preach to them. Start creating puzzle pieces and put them out there. Trust that they will be found, kept and cherished until they become meaningful, and then, over time, will start to address these disparities.
Go play in the sandbox a while. See what happens.
