Superjawn: How to Connect the Youth to the Vote
By Timothy Zagala
On October 14th, my friend Jeffery and I headed from Penn’s campus to a local community college to join a SuperJawn event – the launch of an animated film pitched to voters my age. Taking public transport was a huge hassle with our train running late, but we finally made it and even had a pleasant conversation on the way. I like to think that having to experience the horrid transportation system was just one more good reason to vote so that maybe an elected official who listens to people my age might finally take action on issues that affect our lives.
When we arrived early at Community College of Philadelphia, our Penn professor, Lorene Cary, greeted us, and we walked together to the room where the event was being held. I was so tired I didn’t even introduce myself to the team behind the project. We just grabbed some snacks and took our seats.
While the presentation was being set up, I looked around the room to scan for any familiar faces from college, but I found instead that everyone there was really young. The other students watching with us seemed to be in their middle school years, though all of the creators looked to be about the same age as me.
Although I can’t create it myself, ever since elementary school I have been a huge fan of animation, largely influenced by watching anime late at night on Toonami. While watching this SuperJawn film, I recognized a lot of animation techniques from anime. The constantly switching art styles, the character and sound design, the flipping colors. All of it felt so familiar, like it was from my favorite anime Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure! I was glad that the presenters had allowed time for an interview afterwards because I had questions I was really eager to ask about their process.
I wasn’t the only one. During the Q and A, one of the youth voting advocates asked the same question I had, which was about the inspiration for the animation style. The response from the writer actually made my heart jump because I was so happy that someone knew and liked the same niche medium that I did. It reminded me of how, when I was younger, I would get so excited whenever someone talked about anime that I couldn’t stop myself from jumping into the conversation. I thought to myself then that if I were the same age as the students in the room, this would have completely changed my viewpoint on voting.
Really! It sounds silly, but it’s true. I would be interested in any subject as long as it was connected to something I already liked. I even saw across the room that the minute anime was brought up, some younger students really woke up, hooked. I guess I’m no different from a kid.
When I was in middle school and being told how important my vote was, it was always coming from somebody much older than me that I couldn’t relate to. That’s why it’s so important that the ones advocating for voting are younger. When you enter a classroom filled with bored pre-teens and young teenagers, you have to know what they like and apply it naturally to something they find dull. I hope the students in that room were more inspired to vote that day, and as for me, I think I’ll place an “I Voted” sticker on my Jotaro Kujo figurine when I get back home.
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