Youth Quote Search

Welcome to the Striving to Thriving Youth Quote Library. Here you’ll find a curated collection of more than 5,700 quotes from young people ages 15-22 living in communities across the United States. In the library you can see how young people describe their multifaceted identities, how they understand and apply meaning to language around job, work and career, how they think about and assign value to relationships, networking and connections, and their future goals and the education and career choices they believe will lead them there. You can also view additional notes on curation, categories and filters. 

  • Challenges and Barriers
  • Discrimination and Bias

“Sad to say but being a woman in STEM, which I just hate the fact that I wrote that down but unfortunately in 2019 it is still an issue…Just the fact that up until really like the last 50 years that the scientific field and technological field has predominantly be dubbed a male territory. Of course, there have been miles and miles of progress made in recent years, but we still have so far to go before we can be seen as equals and get rid of those glass ceilings and all of that good stuff.”

Participant:

  • Pasadena, CA
  • white
  • female
  • 15-22
  • higher income
  • Characterizations of a good job
  • Understanding Job/Work/Career

“So it’s like…to take care of your kids, well, to take care of your family, be able to pay your bills, just enough money.”

Participant:

  • Greenville, MS
  • Black
  • female
  • 15-22
  • lower income
  • Impact of family
  • Pathways

“My mom always says like defend yourself. Don’t let someone talk down to you, especially a male. Like that was her issue with my father. My father would do that, so that’s been a thing since I was a kid. Like don’t let a guy talk down to you. Stand up for yourself. Like don’t feel like less of a person. Just make sure you’re always defending yourself because you’re just as equal as a man is.”

Participant:

  • New York, NY
  • white
  • female
  • 15-22
  • lower income
  • Pathways
  • Steps and stages

“Graduate from UCLA in 2 years. Take my sciences during that and then find somebody who will accept me in their office to work 2000 hours hands on. Apply to PA school and get in; meet my future husband who is also working, stable; invest in some properties to make money for a house, marriage and then have kids, 4 of them. Then my ultimate goal is to live comfortably, travel and be happy.”

Participant:

  • Los Angeles, CA
  • white
  • female
  • 15-22
  • lower income
  • Impact of family
  • Pathways

“In general my mom just because I grew up in a single parent home…I felt I kind of owed it to her because she gave up her life for me to have a life. She is like how dare I waste my life when somebody else gave up their life for me. I feel she sacrificed so much.”

Participant:

  • New York, NY
  • Hispanic
  • female
  • 26-29
  • higher income
  • Attributes and characteristics
  • Describing Identity

“Interesting, go-getter, nerdy, pathetic, passionate, caring.”

Participant:

  • New York, NY
  • Hispanic
  • male
  • 15-22
  • higher income
  • Characterizations of a bad job
  • Understanding Job/Work/Career

“Every time I come here somebody yelling; work never getting done. We always got this, this, and this to do. If your mood change when you get to work and when you leave, you don’t like your job. You don’t like it. You need to leave. You all need to quit.”

Participant:

  • Chicago, IL
  • Black
  • male
  • 15-22
  • lower income
  • Challenges and Barriers
  • Lack of skills and competition

“Yeah, [there were challenges] because the test, I kind of missed a few, and I only had like four chances to get it. And I was able to pass my last one on the last try.”

Participant:

  • Yakima, WA
  • Hispanic
  • male
  • 15-22
  • lower income
  • Characterizations of a good job
  • Understanding Job/Work/Career

“Hours.”

Participant:

  • Oakland, CA
  • Black
  • female
  • 15-22
  • lower income
  • Impact of family
  • Pathways

“Every night [I have conversations with family members about what it is I want to do].”

Participant:

  • Yakima, WA
  • white
  • male
  • 15-22
  • lower income