This is the future kids want
Earlier this year, I went to Career Day at my older kid's school. The experience was sometimes humbling — at an elementary school career fair, no one can compete with the firefighters — but it was also incredibly joyful. Hearing from kids about what they want to be when they grow up can be a balm for anxious times.
Adults may be fearful for the future, kids are still dreaming and planning, figuring out the place they're going to inhabit in a world that's constantly changing. Yes, kids today will come of age in a time of climate change, war, and democratic backsliding — but they're also going to create new art, invent new technologies, and pioneer new policies that will make the world better and richer in ways we can't even imagine yet.
With all this in mind, I asked a few kids — including some of the Scholastic Kid Reporters who have helped me out in the past — to tell me what they want to be when they grow up, and what changes they hope to see in the world. A selection of their responses, which have been condensed and edited, are below. If the kids in your life would like to weigh in too, you can reach me at anna.north@vox.com.
I want to be a gymnastics teacher. I want to get married and have kids, maybe five. I want to go to France. I want to do ballet in France.
I want to do anything I want. I want more kittens on the planet. I want everyone to have their own house with their own family. I want self-driving lawnmowers. I don't want people to eat chickens, who should be treated like a princess.
—Mairead, age 8
During Covid, our math and science teacher would show us these videos about space. Those videos really inspired me. The idea that there might be life other than planet Earth was just really cool to me. Our universe is so big, there's so many places to explore, so many new things to learn.
[As a Scholastic Kid Reporter, I wrote a story] about the total solar eclipse. I remember interviewing Mr. James Tralie. That was really cool, because he worked at NASA, but he was also an animator, and I also love art and drawing. From that experience, I learned being part of NASA and learning about space is not only about being a scientist or being an engineer, it's also about doing art, doing music, and just doing what you truly love related to space.
When I was younger, I loved playing with Legos. I love building new things. I've learned a lot about being an aerospace technician or an engineer: building rockets, fixing issues related to space technology. I also love exploring. So being an astronomer is one of my dreams.
I just don't think it makes sense that there's only one planet in our entire universe where there's life. I hope to find life on other planets in the future.
—Aiden, age 13
I want to be a teacher because I see in my class a lot of different faces and colors of everyone, and I think it's going to be important to help other people grow like I grow in my school.
In my class, I have people who are shy, people who need extra help, and people who are really smart, so I feel like getting education for everybody to reach the same [level] is going to be hard.
—Kimaaya, age 8
I would like to taxidermy a lamprey eel.
—Eleanor, age 6
Interviewing ukulelist James Hill as a Scholastic Kid Reporter and talking to him about music showed me that there are many different ways to play an instrument. On his ukulele, he doesn't just play a couple of chords — he makes creative musical sounds, even drumbeats. Talking with him inspired me to become a performer on the ukulele and guitar.
Not to brag, but I feel like I'm very skilled with ukulele. I feel like if someone gave me a sheet of music, I could learn it and play it for them maybe the next day perfectly.
My biggest goal is to experiment more with the notes and strings, learn some more tricks on it, and maybe someday make my own album.
—Owen, age 12
I want to do research in politics or economics that could bring about real changes in our world.
Growing up during the Covid pandemic, we were all stuck online. I was seeing a lot of stuff about the Black Lives Matter movement, lots of Instagram stuff about LGBT rights, there was the Trump administration, and it really got me curious about politics and social justice.
I'm from Hong Kong as well, and in 2019 there were the protests that occurred about democracy. I'm really obsessed with the idea of preserving democracy, so I think that just pushed me further into reading more about politics.
I think you could use the quantitative bit of economics and tie it into the qualitative bit of politics, and use data, like observing patterns and everything, and apply that to something that could cause change in the world. I think I would be studying politics and economics so that I could keep both doors open, depending on what I want to pursue in the future. Because I'm still 17. I'm not set yet, but I think both of these paths offer me the education, the knowledge to potentially bring impact.
—Macy, age 17
Watching the Olympics, hearing about doing archery, and seeing pictures [inspired me to want to be an Olympic archer]. Last year, I started saving up for an archery bow, and now I have one. We go to archery club every Sunday.
[I also want to be] a bat scientist. A few days ago, we went on a bat watch in the middle of the night. Have you heard of something called a bat detector? It's a little device, and it can intercept different kinds of bat calls with this little dial, and you turn it [to] different levels, and you can listen for bats. We were at this wood cabin, and there was a big light for the bugs, and the bats would quickly go for them. So we didn't really see them clearly, but we heard them very loud.
[I want to] study about bats: what they eat, what size they are, and where they like to go and everything.
—Flower, age 8
Your mom says you want to be an owl scientist. What makes you want to study owls?
They're so pretty.
What's your favorite owl?
Snow owl.
What do owls eat?
Mice, rabbits, bugs, bats. … If I have a pet owl, and Flower has a pet bat… [trails off]
—Tabby, age 4, Flower's sister
A 4-year-old girl came to the US legally in 2023 to get treatment for a severe medical condition called short bowel syndrome. Now her family's legal status has been terminated, and she could die without access to care.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will stop recommending routine Covid vaccines for healthy children, part of a series of policy changes that could mean kids can't access the shots, even if their families want them.
Kids with autism can be at heightened risk of drowning, and traditional swim classes aren't always accessible to them. Now some nonprofits are stepping in to help.
My older kid and I have been reading Hooky, a graphic novel about twin witches who miss the school bus one day and become embroiled in a variety of hijinks. Fair warning: Hooky was originally serialized and there is a lot going on. I have repeatedly had to admit to my kid that I am confused.
This week I was on one of my favorite parenting podcasts, The Longest Shortest Time, talking about my experience getting a salpingectomy, a form of permanent birth control that can reduce your risk of ovarian cancer. You can listen here!
Two weeks ago, I wrote about 'dry texting' and how teens use their phones to avoid in-person conflict with one another. Young people had a lot to tell me about this phenomenon, more than I could include in the original story. So I wanted to share what Gracelynn, age 12 and a Scholastic Kid Reporter, told me in an email:
Gracelynn said online arguments can be more complex than in-person confrontation because 'when you are chatting online, they could copy and paste the text or media image and use it against you.' With in-person arguments, it's also easier for adults to overhear and intervene. Gracelynn also noted that even though her school uses GoGuardian software to keep kids off certain websites during the day, 'they still manage to pull off crazy things.'
Thank you again to Gracelynn and everyone who talked to me for that story, and as always, you can reach me with comments or questions at anna.north@vox.com.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Vox
an hour ago
- Vox
Why tariffs haven't caused runaway inflation — yet
covers politics Vox. She first joined Vox in 2019, and her work has also appeared in Politico, Washington Monthly, and the New Republic. Initial predictions about runaway inflation and empty shelves after President Donald Trump announced his sweeping tariffs in April have yet to materialize. Some in the Trump administration have taken that as a sign that he should double down on tariffs. Earlier this month, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent posted on X that the 'inflation propagandists have been proven wrong.' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that 'President Trump is stabilizing inflation and the 'panicans' continue to be wrong about tariffs raising prices.' Trump himself crowed on his social network Truth Social: 'Consumer Prices LOW,' he wrote, urging the Federal Reserve to bring down interest rates in response. Their declarations of success, however, are likely premature. The first indication that inflation might be ticking up came in June, when the consumer price index increased by 2.7 percent, up from 2.4 percent the previous month. The prices of food, housing, and used cars increased at even higher rates. And they may not be done climbing. Economists told Vox that the upward trend is likely to continue, so long as the tariffs remain in effect. Companies have taken steps to ride out the uncertainty that tariffs cause, but before the end of the year, they will face untenable financial pressure to raise prices, absent major changes in US trade policy. 'By the time we get to the end of August, you'll kind of look back and it will appear that directionally, the people who said tariffs would increase prices over the summer were right,' said Daniel Hornung, a senior fellow at MIT and former deputy director of the National Economic Council under the Biden administration. Why tariffs increase prices Trump's tariffs are predicated on a faulty assumption that countries with a trade imbalance with the US — in which they export more to the US than they import from it — are taking advantage of America. Trump's rationale ignores why those imbalances might exist in the first place. One factor is the population profile of countries that trade with the US: Vietnam, for example, exports more than it imports from the US because it is relatively poor and cannot afford to buy many American-made goods. Americans' consumption tendencies also lead to trade imbalances. Compared to other Western countries, Americans are a younger and faster-growing population, one that saves less and spends more on imported goods relative to its counterparts overseas. There is also high foreign investment in the US, in part driven by the fact that the dollar is the world reserve currency and by the perception that American real estate and government debt are attractive investments. Trump misunderstands these dynamics, and economists argue that tariffs won't change them. The president, nevertheless, believes that tariffs can rectify these imbalances by spurring a renaissance of domestic manufacturing, causing the US to import less, export more, and create more jobs. But that's also unlikely. The economy runs on confidence in the future. Businesses make plans months or years in advance hoping that their investments will eventually pay dividends. Consumers, too, are more likely to spend on goods and services that these businesses sell when they feel good about their prospects. Their spending helps support economic growth and a solid job market. The uncertainty about whether and when Trump's tariffs will roll out, and at what cost, has given businesses little reason to make massive new investments in US factories spanning years into the future. Such investment could be a risky bet when it's not clear if Trump will back down on the tariffs — or be forced to do so as part of a pending court case — in a matter of months. In the meantime, tariffs will increase costs for producers and retailers, which they eventually have to pass on to US consumers if they wish to maintain their profit margins. Why hasn't inflation increased dramatically yet? So far, companies have managed to avoid drastic price increases for a few reasons. For one, the rollout of tariffs against many major US trading partners has been delayed until August 1. That includes a 35 percent tariff on Canada, a 50 percent tariff on Brazil, a 25 percent tariff on South Korea, and a 30 percent tariff on the European Union and Mexico. The Trump administration has been trying to negotiate deals with all of them before the August 1 deadline. On Wednesday, Japan announced a deal with the Trump administration that allowed it to avert higher tariff rates, but it will still face a 15 percent tariff on all exports to the US. Notably, the US has also reached a temporary trade deal with China that lowered tariffs from 145 percent to 30 percent. That deal expires August 12, but Bessent has suggested that it is likely to be extended. Collecting tariffs has yet to begin or has only recently begun for many countries, so the tariffs' impact on prices has lagged — but it's still on the horizon. Preston Caldwell, chief US economist for Morningstar, said that he predicts that inflation will peak not in 2025, but rather in 2026, as that impact spreads through the economy. And the effect will be acute, given that even countries that have secured deals with the US face tariffs that would have once been unthinkably high. A flat 10 percent tariff on all imports was considered a nightmare scenario before Trump took office. 'I don't think predictions of inflation were wrong,' said Matt Colyar, an economist for Moody's Analytics. 'I just think it's a matter of timing.' Companies have been reluctant to raise prices sharply and potentially drive away customers who were already struggling to keep up with inflation in the post-pandemic era. The Yale Budget Lab has projected that the tariffs could cost Americans an average $2,300 per household. But some retailers also made preparations to mitigate the initial impact of tariffs on their businesses. Businesses that can afford it have been stockpiling inventory for months in an attempt to keep prices low and ride out the tariffs, hoping that Trump will change course. But their inventory will only last so long. 'Companies have started paying tariffs on their imported goods, but as far as the goods that are being sold in stores right now, those are primarily being drawn from the inventory of goods that were brought in before the tariffs,' Caldwell said. 'So most companies are still not really having to recognize the loss of tariffs yet to a great degree.' What happens next There are some categories of goods that are likely to see higher price increases than others. That includes electronics, appliances, apparel, and furniture — durable goods that have a large import share, MIT's Hornung said. Between February and June, the price of major appliances already increased by 5.7 percent, and furniture and bedding prices rose by 1.7 percent. 'That's different from what we're seeing in categories that are not particularly import-sensitive, like the service sector. You have to look closely, but you are really seeing a divergence now between tariff-sensitive and non–tariff-sensitive categories,' Hornung said. Fruit and coffee are some staple items that have a large share of imports that could also see price increases. By the time back-to-school shopping starts, Americans might start to notice the impact on their pocketbooks. Unlike big-ticket items, like cars, shoppers might not be able to put off purchases of smaller essentials. 'People don't put off shoe purchases for years and years and years,' Hornung said. 'That's an example of one where you'll both probably get the pricing effect, and you won't see slowing demand sufficient to offset any of it.' Colyar said he's also watching tariffs on copper imports. 'Copper is in everything. It's in electronic components. It's fundamental to housing,' he said. 'It's an interesting bellwether for a pain point that people have very clearly communicated.' Companies are biding their time, hoping that they can get a reprieve from tariffs in the next few months. But they're staring into a future where these kinds of changes become inevitable.
USA Today
3 hours ago
- USA Today
Trump says he wants Elon Musk to 'THRIVE' after threatening his subsidies
Elon Musk's companies have benefited from government contracts, including SpaceX through its relationships with the Pentagon and NASA. WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump says he does not want to ruin billionaire advisor Elon Musk's businesses by taking away federal subsidies after recently threatening the former head of the Department of Government Efficiency. 'Everyone is stating that I will destroy Elon's companies by taking away some, if not all, of the large scale subsidies he receives from the U.S. Government,' Trump wrote in a July 24 Truth Social post. 'This is not so! I want Elon, and all businesses within our Country, to THRIVE, in fact, THRIVE like never before! The better they do, the better the USA does, and that's good for all of us. We are setting records every day, and I want to keep it that way!' Musk's companies have benefited from billions of dollars in U.S. government contracts over the past two decades, including SpaceX through its relationships with the Department of Defense and NASA. In all, Musk and his businesses have received at least $38 billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credits, often at critical moments, a Washington Post analysis found. Trump's latest remarks come after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a press briefing on July 23 that she does not think the president supports federal agencies contracting with Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, which developed the chatbot Grok. xAI recently announced a $200 million contract with the Department of Defense. The two men had a dramatic falling out over Trump's signature tax and domestic policy law, with Musk blasting it as a 'disgusting abomination' that would only add to the growing deficit. In July, Trump threatened to have DOGE review the billions of dollars' worth of contracts that Musk's companies receive. "Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa," Trump wrote in a 12:44 a.m. July 1 post on Truth Social. "No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!" Musk, who was co-leader of DOGE, responded shortly afterward, saying, "I am literally saying CUT IT ALL. Now." Musk had warned Tesla investors on July 23 that U.S. government cuts in support for electric vehicle makers could lead to a "few rough quarters" for the company. Contributing: Reuters, Joey Garrison
Vox
3 hours ago
- Vox
What won't Trump blame on California?
is a senior reporter for Vox's Future Perfect section, with a focus on animal welfare and the future of meat. President Donald Trump's second term has been very good to large meat companies, which raise and slaughter some 10 billion animals each year. But his administration just gave the industry perhaps its biggest gift yet — in the form of a lawsuit against California. The lawsuit, filed on July 9 by the Department of Justice, seeks to dismantle part of California's Proposition 12, the nation's strongest law for farmed animals, which requires that pork, veal, and eggs sold in California come from animals who were raised with minimum space requirements — essentially cage-free conditions. Passed by ballot measure in 2018, Proposition 12 doesn't quite guarantee humane conditions for farmed animals, but it does at least ban some of the worst factory farming practices: confining egg-laying hens in tiny cages and female breeding pigs in 'gestation crates,' cages so small that they prevent the pregnant pigs from turning around for virtually their entire lives. The Trump administration's lawsuit would nullify the part of the law that covers eggs, which it partially blames for high egg prices not just in California, but across the whole country. Most female breeding pigs in the US are confined in gestation crates for virtually their entire lives. The crates prohibit them from even turning around. Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals A little more than half of US egg-laying hens are perpetually confined in battery cages, which prevent them from opening their wings. Getty Images/iStockphoto The lawsuit, however, is confusing two entirely separate issues. Cage-free eggs do cost more than eggs produced with cages, though not by much — just a few pennies per egg. Agriculture economists overwhelmingly agree that US egg prices have skyrocketed nationwide over the last few years not because of cage-free egg laws, but because of the bird flu, which has led to the brutal culling of more than 100 million egg-laying hens since 2022. That has caused acute egg shortages and price spikes — especially in fall and winter months when bird flu hits the hardest. 'What you saw was this huge amount of birds out of the system, and then we just have a shortage of eggs,' said Jada Thompson, an associate professor of agricultural economics at the University of Arkansas. She estimates that 90 percent of the rise in national egg prices can be attributed to bird flu. So ending cage-free laws won't do much to bring down egg prices, nor do egg producers want to dismantle those laws, because they've already invested billions of dollars to convert their barns to cage-free. Then what, exactly, is the point of the lawsuit? The Justice Department didn't respond to an interview request for this story. But a number of factors suggest it's likely a smokescreen for other political goals. The Trump administration and Republicans like to beat up on California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who many speculate has presidential ambitions of his own. The administration is also motivated to be seen as doing something — anything — to bring down grocery prices. And according to Chris Green, executive director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, the lawsuit is also being used to drum up support for a federal bill, known as the Food Security and Farm Protection Act, which would nullify Proposition 12 and similar laws. The bill has gone by many names in recent years and has so far failed to pass, and has long been a priority for the pork industry. The goal of the lawsuit, Green believes, is 'to attach Trump's name to this [issue], and to try to whip votes' for the Food Security and Farm Protection Act. US Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has also called for striking down Proposition 12. There are lots of reasons why the Trump administration might be eager to help the pork industry. All politicians like being viewed as supportive of farmers, an issue that doesn't always fall neatly across party lines: The Biden administration, too, sided with the pork industry against Prop 12. But the industry overwhelmingly donates to Republican candidates, and Bruce Rastetter — a pork magnate, Republican megadonor, and Iowa political kingmaker — has backed Trump and served as an agricultural adviser during Trump's first term. In other words, although the case is facially about egg prices, it might really have nothing to do with eggs at all. It instead represents the Trump administration's effort to help the pork industry preserve one of the cruelest farming practices ever devised. The decades-long fight over keeping animals in tiny cages Over the last two decades, animal protection groups have successfully campaigned to persuade major food companies, like McDonald's and Chipotle, to eliminate gestation crates for pigs and cages for egg-laying hens from their supply chains. Many states, like California, have banned cages, too. (Disclosure: I worked on a 2016 ballot measure in Massachusetts that is similar to California's law.) Although they initially pushed back against cage-free campaigns, egg producers eventually embraced cage-free production to comply with state laws and meet demand from restaurants and grocery stores. In a recent letter to Agriculture Secretary Rollins, the president of the country's top egg industry trade group wrote that dismantling state laws like Proposition 12 would squander the industry's investments in cage-free production and create an 'additional burden' for egg farmers. Activists with the animal protection group The Humane League protest outside of a Buffalo Wild Wings, asking the company to phase out battery cages from its supply chain. Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post via Getty Images The pork industry, however, has been an entirely different story. For the last six years, meat trade groups have repeatedly sued against Prop 12. Two years ago, the US Supreme Court voted to uphold California's law. Having failed in the courts, the pork industry, led by the trade group National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), is now hoping that Congress will make it illegal for states to develop animal welfare standards for animal products sold within their borders, as California and Massachusetts have done. The industry has argued that Prop 12 would lead to mass pork shortages in California — which didn't transpire — and skyrocketing prices for pork nationwide. The law did moderately raise prices in California, but it didn't affect national prices. And I would argue that California's modest price hike is a small price to pay to prevent what a reasonable person would only call torture. Temple Grandin, the renowned animal scientist, has likened gestation crates to forcing a human to live their entire life in an airline seat. The pork industry's brewing civil war over cage-free bacon NPPC has also claimed that Prop 12 would put many small pork producers out of business. But smaller producers are less likely to use crates, so the law actually gives them an edge by increasing demand for crate-free pork. According to the nonprofit Americans for Family Farmers, around 500 pig farmers have signed a letter opposing legislative attempts to dismantle cage-free laws, and some smaller and midsized meat companies — like Niman Ranch, True Story Foods, and ButcherBox — have taken the same position. Some bigger farmers want to keep crate-free laws intact, too. One of them is Brent Hershey, a pork industry veteran based in Pennsylvania with 3,000 female breeding pigs, or sows, who give birth to nearly 80,000 piglets a year. Hershey had begun using gestation crates in the 1980s, and for a while, he brushed off criticism of the crates, both from people he took on tours of his farm and animal rights activists working to ban them in various states. 'Over and over again I would take people to see the farm, and I always got a reaction out of ladies. They would see that gestation crate, and they would just be like — right away — 'You mean they're in that all the time? When do you let them out of there?'' he said. 'There was always a negative reaction.' Sows in gestation crates. Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Media Over time, he began to question the welfare of pigs confined in gestation crates, and so did his daughter. 'One day, my daughter just looked at me and she said, 'Dad, we are not going to accept that,'' Hershey said. ''We are going to demand that you do it a better way.'' Over time, he started to experiment with crate-free systems. Then a week after the Supreme Court upheld Proposition 12, he tore out his farm's gestation crates. Now, he says, his 3,000 sows have more space than the minimum 24 square feet per pig that California requires. While the extra square footage costs him more money, he's seen a few benefits: Fewer pigs die prematurely, and he's able to charge a small premium for his pork. But he argues that it doesn't make sense to compare the higher cost of crate-free pork to that of conventional pork, as though gestation crates are a reasonable baseline. 'Why are we using it as a measurement?' he said. 'You're measuring yourself against a mistake.' Pennsylvania-based Clemens Food Group, the nation's fifth largest fresh pork processor, which buys pigs from Hershey, wants to keep crate-free laws in place, too. 'Many in the industry, including Clemens, have invested significant capital (and human capital) to meet the regulations set by the people of California and Massachusetts,' a spokesperson told Vox in an email. 'Accordingly, Clemens remains vehemently opposed to any legislative or regulatory action that would overrule' those laws. This story was first featured in the Processing Meat newsletter Sign up here for Future Perfect's biweekly newsletter from Marina Bolotnikova and Kenny Torrella, exploring how the meat and dairy industries shape our health, politics, culture, environment, and more. Have questions or comments on this newsletter? Email us at futureperfect@ Other top pork companies, including Tyson Foods, JBS, and Seaboard Foods are all listed as Prop 12-compliant vendors by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, though none of them responded to an interview request for this story. Yet the National Pork Producers Council is still working to kill Prop 12. Hershey, who served on the board of the organization's Pennsylvania chapter for 20 years, said the trade group is out of touch with many consumers and is fighting for relevance within the industry. NPPC is really 'struggling to justify their existence,' Hershey said. NPPC declined an interview request for this story and directed me to its blog post about the Justice Department's lawsuit. At a US House Agriculture Committee hearing on Prop 12 this week, meat industry representatives were invited to testify, while animal welfare scientists, animal advocates, and small farmers were not. It all amounts to political theater to set the stage for upcoming Farm Bill negotiations, where lawmakers are expected to try to fold in legislation to nullify state cage-free laws. Even if it passes, though, I suspect Hershey will still be glad he tore the gestation crates out of his farm: 'This is not rocket science,' he told me. 'A 10-year-old can look at a gestation crate and tell you that's not okay.'
