ST. MARY PARISH — For most 16-year-olds, their greatest concern is getting their driver's license.
But for one Morgan City teen, it's changing state legislature.
Lucy Kincade will be entering her junior year at Central Catholic High School, and she's already taken on an important role within state politics.
She currently serves as the vice president of the Louisiana Legislative Youth Advisory Council.
The organization made up of 31 high schoolers throughout the state, agreed that social media can be detrimental to youth, due to some social media sites selling third-party data and targeting ads.
"This is an important issue and it's not talked about as much as it should be and there needs to be more knowledge about it,” Kincade said.
“And more warning to parents, warnings to teens that say ‘hey this is stuff that is so easily accessible’ and its almost pushed towards us, that can really hurt you without you even realizing it."
The organization pushed for House Bill 577, which could fine social media companies if they sell minor's third-party data through different corporations and target ads.
"Basically what the bill is about is stopping social media companies from being able to infringe on children and use their data, their targeted data and those targeted ads that can kind of have a negative effect on teenagers,” Kincade said.
“So this bill is really stopping those companies from being able to target stuff at teenagers that could cause their mental health to go down, or really anything that could have a negative effect on teenagers."
Kincade is also involved in her local government, helping with youth outreach and running social media for Morgan City to attract a younger age demographic.
"One thing we've been doing that's been very, very popular is a TikTok page,” Kincade said.
“We started a TikTok page for the city and we'll film like little TikToks that are super popular with the youth that some of the older people may not know about and teenagers love it."
Kincade advocates for youth involvement in local government and for their voices to be heard.
"It's important that young people really know what's happening and how important it is to stay informed stay educated, to stay in the know about what's going on in your community because eventually you may be the one making those decisions,” Kincade said.
She's even pushing for two of the city's high schools to have representative serve on the city council.
"A lot of times people don't realize things can affect the youth, and they really do,” Kincade said.
“So by having a teenager sitting on the council we could just have a say in stuff and say 'hey this could help us, this could hurt us.' Just people may not know what it really could do so that's what we represent.” Kincade said.
Although Kincade herself can't vote, she's been talking with Louisiana Secretary of State Nancy Landry on developing a voter workshop for ages 13 to 22, after the state ranked lowest for youth voters in the south.
"To educate on how to vote, how to register to vote what to expect when you're walking into that booth as well as candidates and stuff that is going on the ballot cause a lot of times it can get a little confusing,” Kincade said.
So where can we expect to see Kincade ten years from now?
"Hopefully a senator,” Kincade said.
“Or a state rep that's my goal, really. I want to try to run young and I feel like that's detrimental to politics nowadays we need more younger people in there.”
House Bill 577 will go into effect on July 1, 2025.
