Sitting in the Grey by Alix Harris
14 Nov 2024

Written by Alix Harris, requested by young people in Plymouth.

“We are here… you just don’t see us”

Being a teenager comes with its many challenges; navigating school, future prospects, friendship and home life. For Ashlee, they have all of that whilst navigating life in a place that feels so behind the rest of the country, in a place that doesn’t necessarily accept people that look like her and her family. 

Ashlee is passionate about creating a more equitable world, but her friends think she’s boring, her teachers don’t want to know, and her parents just want her to keep her head down and focus. Ashlee feels like she is never listened to, that she has to stay silent about how she feels,  until one day she meets an unlikely acquaintance at a protest and the silence is broken.

Sitting in the Grey is a story about the disconnect between adults and young people. It’s about power and a desire for change. It’s about the Grey space that people find themselves in, navigating new ways of thinking and the unlearning of what they have already known. Sitting in the Grey explores how necessary it is to take action and not be a bystander.