We're lead to believe that we are a generation of apathetic voters. And yes, whilethe statistics would back up that 70 per cent of us can't be bothered to go to the polling station (it is actually quite likely that renting in different areas all the time and being too busy on a Thursday are big factors in stopping young people from voting, too), there are some young people out there who care about politics. Take Rosie Corrigan, a student who is now the mayor of Selby.
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The 21-year-old student has just finished her politics degree at Hull University, but there's no rest for her now as, after a year of being deputy mayor, she was voted in to the mayoralty on 19 May.
The Labour mayor said: 'I feel absolutely honoured. The council have chosen a younger mayor, and I'm going to use my year in office to encourage young people in Selby to take part in their community.'
Rosie's reasons for getting into politics are a darn sight more lolsy than her area getting a high voter turnout (71.5 per cent of people in the Selby and Ainsty constituency voted in the 2010 general election) – apparently it's all down to sandwiches. 'It sounds silly, but I first got involved in politics because of tuna paninis,' she told The Independent.
'A group of classmates in my form at school were whining about not being able to find their favourite sandwich in the canteen. So I thought, why not do something about it? I ran for school council with a single-policy manifesto: To get paninis on the menu. And I won – and caught the bug!'
Co-founding Selby Youth Council, she became a member of UK Youth Parliament and then, when she was 18, successfully ran for a place on the council – which led to where she is now.
'I hope my election has proved that we’re a forward-thinking town, which doesn’t judge on age or gender,' she said.
Something tells us she's not stopping at Selby, though...
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.