Youth programme

Sparking global conversations inspired by our collection.

Our youth programme embeds the voices of young people at all levels of the Library, through the Youth Collective and Young Creators Lab.

Young Creators Lab is an exciting digital content project for 18 – 24- year- olds, giving you a platform to create meaningful stories for social media, using our collection to inspire conversations around the world.

Alumni from the project now make up our Youth Collective, who meet monthly to embed young people’s voices at all levels of the Library and continue to create inspiring digital content.

Since 2024, participants have developed and produced short films exploring exploring the themes such as music and identity, change-makers, and celebrating culture and books that shift thinking, all inspired by items in our collection. To date their films have been viewed by millions of people worldwide.

Discover all our Young Creators Lab series on our TikTok and YouTube channels @britishlibrary, or view highlights below.

Change-makers highlights

A must visit for queer literature lovers

Young Creator Sav takes you on a tour of Gay's the Word, the UK's first LGBTQ+ bookshop, opened in the 1980s.

Image of woman from above with text saying "Up on a pedestal or down on your knees."

Excerpts from Atwood

Margaret Atwood's poetry is reimagined into a beautiful film by Young Creators Emma and Darragh in 'Am I a Bad Feminist?'

Two young women looking at their phones in a pink room.

Prison letters and CensHERship

Discover our Young Creators' YouTube films exploring change-makers Margaret Atwood, Angela Davis, William Hone and Malala Yousafzai.

Music and identity highlights

Everyday objects: the postal stamp

Young Creators Sanya and Elsie explore the story of Caribbean postal stamps, designed to celebrate the decriminalisation of carnival in the Islands.

Computer monitor with sound editing software displayed.

A journey through music sampling

Learn how The Blackbyrd's 1970s classic hit Mysterious Vibes has been sampled and interpolated by various artists over the years.

Dance as activism

Explore the life and legacy of African American dancer and choreographer Kathryn Dunham, nicknamed the 'queen mother of black dance'.

Impactful books highlights

A person wearing a brown checked jacket over a light grey hoodie holds a copy of the book Love in Colour by Bolu Babalola.

Bolu Babalola’s Love in Colour

Discover a collection of love stories from around the world, rewritten, and hear what our visitors think about experiencing love on the page.

A person with short red hair, wearing a bright blue t-shirt standing in front of a bookshelf holding a copy of the book Call Me By Your Name by Andre Acimen.

Andre Aciman’s Call Me By Your Name

Hear about the modern LGBTQ+ classic which launched a Hollywood star’s career and explores love, life and heartbreak at full intensity.

A person wearing a white blouse, with dark hair in a pony tail holding a copy of the book The Horse and The Boy by C S Lewis.

C S Lewis’s The Horse and His Boy

Have you ever re-read a childhood favourite as an adult and realised it hits different? Real world issues are explored through a fantastical story and magical characters in the third book in The Chronicles of Narnia.

Celebrating culture highlights

A person wearing glasses, with their hair in a bun, smiles while talking.

What’s your family dish?

Stew isn’t just a dish. It’s a story, a memory, a connection to culture and roots. Every family has a dish that tells their story.

A perosn wearing a grey trench coat, white shirt with dark red bow tie, and their hair in two buns with bright red scrunchies, stands in front of the British Library talking into a microphone.

What does fashion mean to you?

Congolese fashion is more than just style. It’s philosophy, respect, dignity and creating beauty even when life is hard.

A person with short red hair and mustache, wearing sports style sunglasses and a headset microphone and is talking into a silver, old fashioned lip ribbon microphone.

Who is your unsung hero?

How does a ballet dancing wrestler become a beloved British icon?

View more on YouTube

Everything for