My First Conference Experience
Juliette Roux
My name is Juliette Roux, I’m a BA Drama and Creative Writing student in my second year at Royal Holloway in the UK.
I joined the Seen and Heard project around November of 2025. At first, I was asked to play a small role of helping out with registration on the days of the conference, which turned into working on the social media page, which turned into being on the organising committee.
When I first agreed to join, I didn’t think much of it. To be honest, I didn’t fully understand what Seen and Heard was about and what the conference was going to look like. However, the more time I spent posting about the project, understanding the project, watching the docu-narratives and the films made by the young people, I started to see where the project was headed. I found the need to put young people’s voices in the forefront particularly interesting because it made me question why this hadn’t been done before. Especially with the For Kids by Kids movies, I saw how the project was concerned with children’s rights and ensured that young people understood their rights and knew how to be vocal when their rights were being infringed.
I wanted to dedicate more of my time to it.
The social media page became somewhat of a passion project for me, and I started to feel how important it was to get this project out there. I was quite nervous to attend the conference, as I had never attended one before and didn’t know what to expect. When I got there and met the delegates and listened to people’s ideas and research, I began to connect the dots on how the fundamental idea of Seen and Heard can be applied in different fields, such as publishing, teaching and policy making. I was especially interested in the questions the young people asked during the ‘Us Children Have Questions’ panel because they challenged several academics in their implementation of Seen and Heard into their own research and work.
Even though I’m not personally in the field of children’s literature, several of the panels and keynotes resonated with me, especially as a young person. I found myself participating in discussions even though I wasn’t a well-researched PHD student, and I was listened to. In Workshop D, we spoke about the education system and how it not only disadvantages young people but also teachers in its current state. As someone who has recently left school, my opinion on the structural flaws was appreciated and we had an in-depth back and forth into how we can integrate Seen and Heard to better uplift students and teachers alike.
I found a voice through the workshops, and the energy of the space was so welcoming. To put it simply, I felt incredibly ‘seen and heard’ despite not being one of the young people this project was aimed at, and I don’t think I’m alone in saying that. When the conference concluded, it was emotional, but I knew it was only the beginning of something special and world-changing. I can’t wait to see where this project is headed in the future, and I really hope to be a part of it.
