All Children and Youth Thrive!

By: Lacey Swamy (She/They), Youth Leader, Writing from Treaty 22 Land For years, I thought I was white. Truth be told, I never felt ‘brown enough’ to identify as anything else. I’m half Guyanese and half British, making my skin tone definitely not white.  It wasn’t until I was 14, at the start of the pandemic, that I realized I was biracial. Then at 15, I began to consider myself a person of colour, and at 16, I finally believed it. I would love to stand here and say I just woke up one day and understood my race and accepted it. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. Being surrounded by predominantly white people all through elementary and middle school, I learned very little about other racial identities. Going into online school, because of the pandemic, I spent more time on social media and eventually had the resources to learn more about myself. I remember being grateful enough to attend a Leadership Diversity conference, where I joined their biracial affinity group, within...