These are some of the most influential and powerful books advocating for youth rights. All supporters of this cause are encouraged to read these classics.

Get informed

Information is power, and has always been used by the powerless to help their situation. NYRA knows this and is opening its collection of materials for the use of its members and all visitors who wish to learn more about Youth Rights. This library contains research papers, opinion articles, fiction, poetry, and well reasoned treatises. NYRA does not necessarily condone or endorse the opinion expressed herein, but please read this to educate yourself on these various issues. Feel free to use information contained here in research papers, just remember to cite it properly. Be sure to send us a copy of any Youth Rights research you are doing too!

The Escape
By Logan Feys
The dramatic and moving story of an oppressed teen and his daring escape from the ageist, conformist system that controls him.

The Final Prejudice
By David Deutsch
Article about the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Rascals” interpreted in youth rights terms.

Legislative Analysis of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984
By Alex Koroknay-Palicz
A case history of the conditions in the legislative process that led to the passing of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act.

Review of In Re Gault
By Alex Koroknay-Palicz
Review of the Supreme Court case that granted due process to minors.

Analysis of US Youth Curfew Laws
By Rich Jahn
This well researched paper examines the constitutional issues around curfews and existing research into their effectiveness.

Adultism and Cultural Competence
By Jorge Velázquez Jr. & Maria Garin-Jones
Introduces Adultism and how it is a barrier to effectively working with and serving youth.

Scapegoating of Youth
By Alex Koroknay-Palicz
How the media, politicians, and doctors use youth violence to scapegoat young people.

Age Lines
By Sven Bonnichsen
Youth Rights seeks to change how adults treat youth. But what makes someone an “adult”? Who falls into the category of “young people”?

This is not a poetry circle. This is a movement.
By Alex Koroknay-Palicz
This rousing speech was delivered to the 2007 NYRA Annual Meeting and argues for the importance and urgency of youth rights.

Fight For Your Right
By Roy Lenhart
Confronts statistics and assumptions by MADD and the youth prohibition movement.

Underage Drinking and Bald Eagles
By David J. Hanson, Ph.D.
CASA must invent statistics to feed the fire of youth prohibitionism.

A New Minority
By Phillip Pedersen
Youth have become a new minority in this country, victim of much prejudice.

There They Go Again!
By David J. Hanson, Ph.D.
Alarmist youth prohibitionists making up statistics once again about underage drinking.

The Etiology & Treatment Of Childhood
By Jordan W. Smoller
Tongue in cheek analysis of the “disease” of childhood.

Key Note Address to Hewlett Model Congress
By Alex Koroknay-Palicz
This speech delivered on April 14, 2000 at the Hewlett Model Congress in Long Island New York.

San Diego Curfew Speech
By Dave Doctor
This speech delivered at a street fair in San Diego a few days before Libertarian Rock’s protest at City Hall in September, 1997.

DC Curfew Speech
By Alex Koroknay-Palicz
This speech delivered on November 4, 1999 at the second Washington, DC curfew protest.

School Board Campaign Speeches
By Adam King
These speeches were delivered in 2006 in an effort to add a student adviser to the Buncombe County Board of Education.




The Evolving Capacities of the Child
By Gerison Lansdown
A well researched United Nations report that argues for greater autonomy and respect for youth. Demonstrates that youth aren’t as incapable as typically believed.

Young and Oppressed
By Brian Dominick & Sara Zia Ebrahimi
This paper provides a good and thorough treatment of youth oppression, analyzing political, economic, cultural, and interpersonal forms of ageism.

Three Types of Youth Liberation
By Sven Bonnichsen
Defines and describes different approaches to youth rights. From Youth Equality, to Youth Power, to Youth Culture, and the problems that arise between them.

Drive for Rights of Children
US News & World Report article from August 5, 1974 describing the current state of the youth rights movement that was sweeping across the nation at the time.

Children and the Most Essential Right
By Ben O’Meara
Well researched paper focuses on the legal argument for lowering the voting age and the use of social science research to buttress that argument.

May 2004 Interview With Mike Males
By Alex Koroknay-Palicz
This interview with youth rights author and sociologist, Mike Males, touches on many key issues of youth rights and youth oppression.

Understanding Adultism
By John Bell
Identifies ageism at all levels of society with examples and analysis.

Katie Sierra, American Hero
By Alex Crispin Sartwell
This article discusses the events that took place concerning Katie Sierra, a girl who was suspended for wearing a shirt with a strong political message.

Youth Rights Poetry
By Various
A collection of Youth Rights poems by various individuals.

Analysis of President Clinton’s Youth Violence Strategy
By Alex Koroknay-Palicz
This essay examines Clinton’s anti-youth scapegoating concerning violence, and how he uses it to further his political agendas.

Parents and Parenting
By Alex Koroknay-Palicz
Article discussing parental instincts and the way children are treated.

Another Modest Proposal
By Kevin Sanchez
A Youth Rights satire based on Jonathon Swift’s famous “Proposal” about the Irish.

A Youth Liberation Movement Is Taking Shape
By Ellen S. Miller
This discusses how supporting youth leadership leads to greater empowerment.

A Revolution By A New Generation
By Kevin Sanchez
Article that speaks of Adultist stereotyping of youth, and what we can do about it.

Bathrooms, Hygiene & Inequality
By Kevin Sanchez
Discusses the quality and restrictions imposed on the student’s bathrooms.

Searches and Seizures in Public Schools
By Alex Koroknay-Palicz
Review of Supreme Court cases Veronia v. Acton and New Jersey v. T.L.O. and their effect on student’s 4th amendment rights.

Defiance
By Alex Crispin Sartwell
Defiance as the solution to the condition of schools as ‘internment camps for political dissidents.’