Until her conversation with Miles Lucier, Rachel Hale had never interviewed someone while sitting on the floor of a gazebo.
Hale, a youth mental health reporting fellow at USA Today, was reporting on a “grief camp” for families whose parents or siblings had died of drug overdoses. There she spoke with Miles and his mother, camp attendees who had lost their family’s eldest daughter to a fentanyl overdose. Hale was drawn to their story and asked if she could write a feature about them. The family agreed.
In her reporting, Hale spoke with both Tricia Reagan, the mother of the family, and Liliana, the 18-year-old middle child, but was keen to get eight-year-old Miles’s perspective, too. So, after informally getting to know Miles, she set up a time to interview him with his mother and a camp staffer called a “big buddy.” Sitting with Hale on the gazebo floor, Miles kept his hands occupied by fidgeting with his lanyard as their conversation ranged between his sister, his friends, and camp.
Hale asked specific but simple questions, knowing she would later decide whether the things Miles shared were appropriate to include in an article. It was important to her, she says, “to not discount the grief of someone who’s so young, because I think we can learn a lot from how kids think about the world.” Miles described details, such as a paper lantern he decorated with lightning bolts in honor of his sister, that no one else in the family mentioned but that added richness to Hale’s October 2025 article about the family.
Despite the fact that people under 18 make up around one-third of the global population, they are generally poorly represented in journalism.
Despite the fact that people under 18 make up almost one-third of the global population, they are generally poorly represented in journalism. Issues seen as universal, like healthcare, civil rights, urban development, and violent conflict, can impact children as much as — or more than — adults. Yet stories on these subjects rarely include children’s perspectives. Even for stories about child-centered issues, such as education, mental health, or the latest social media trend, reporters often interview adult experts and researchers rather than children.
One reason is that interviewing people under 18 comes with unique considerations. There are practical hurdles, such as getting parent or guardian approval and ensuring the child understands what they are agreeing to. A reporter must conduct an interview in a way that is safe, productive, and appropriate for the child’s attention span, life experiences, and maturity. There are also ethical considerations: Children are a vulnerable group, and exposing them to media attention can be dangerous.
For all these reasons, not every story can—or should—include children’s voices, and talking to adults is often sufficient provided children’s experiences are considered in the reporting. But when the circumstances and time allow, incorporating children’s voices into stories can be enormously powerful. Their experiences and perspectives are often distinct from those of adults, offering novel viewpoints that widen both the reader’s and writer’s understanding of broader issues.
In short, stories relevant to young people will often benefit from including their perspectives—a statement that, for any other group, would be self-evident.
“I think there can be a tendency to write off younger people as being ill-informed … and I think that does a disservice to reporting,” says Rebecca Ruiz, a reporter at Mashable who regularly covers youth mental health and technology. “It’s critical for journalists to find ways to listen to children and young people, and that’s not always easy. We just have to keep making the effort.”
How to Find Kids to Interview
Typically, stories featuring children’s interviews begin one of two ways: either a reporter meets a child they want to build a story around, like Hale did with Miles, or a reporter begins with a topic they feel requires a child’s perspective.
Deciding which stories require a young person’s perspective is not cut-and-dried. Securing and conducting an interview with a child is time-consuming and not always practical on a deadline. Additionally, being interviewed on some topics may induce anxiety, so it’s important to ask yourself what a minor’s voice could add to a story that adult voices cannot.
“The way students are engaging with each other and the way they’re showing personality, I think, is really interesting,” Villatoro says. That culture is difficult to capture without kids’ voices.
Raquel Villatoro, who writes about education for The Waco Bridge, often covers her beat without interviewing minors, but she tries to find younger sources for stories about students’ day-to-day lives. Even since she graduated in 2018, she says, high school—and youth culture more broadly—has changed dramatically. “The way students are engaging with each other and the way they’re showing personality, I think, is really interesting,” she says. That culture is difficult to capture without kids’ voices.
To connect with younger sources, a good starting place is a relevant adult-run organization, such as a school, club, or community group. Adults there can act as intermediaries to find children who feel comfortable being interviewed. At some schools, for example, students and parents sign media releases that may give the school permission to connect students to reporters.
In these situations, journalists must consider whether to involve parents in their reporting. A 2018 article covering dos and don’ts when interviewing children in the Columbia Journalism Review stressed that reporters interviewing elementary school students should always seek parental permission. But by middle school, the guide says, permission is less necessary for non-sensitive stories, and by high school, “the general rule is that parental permission isn’t required.” However, Ruiz notes that publications may have their own guidelines about working with minors, so make sure to check with your editor first.
Contacting parents can be a smart move even if it is not required by your publication. Doing so gives families a chance to discuss the full ramifications of participation, and parents can prove to be useful sources, too.
Other times, family members may be the most direct way to meet younger sources, particularly for stories involving difficult or sensitive subjects, such as trauma or medical issues. In these situations, it’s best to give the adults a chance to have an off-the-record conversation with you, Hale says. This allows you to explain what you hope to achieve with the article, go over the questions you plan to ask, and address any parental concerns. This is especially true for stories involving elementary-age children.
“Anytime [I’ve interviewed] a younger child, it’s almost always been someone I’ve been connected to after I built trust with the family,” Hale says.
More rarely, reporters may want to reach out to children directly. In these instances, it is crucial to approach children in a public setting where they will feel safe, comfortable, and able to say no. It is also helpful to ask the child if they have a trusted adult they could call for permission to speak with you. For non-sensitive stories, Villatoro says she might approach younger people at community events. She recently wrote about a high school mariachi band that performed at a birthday party she attended.
Reaching out to children privately on the Internet is generally a bad idea. Such behavior could raise suspicions and risks undermining your trustworthiness as a reporter.
How to Get Everyone Comfortable
Once a child agrees to an interview, a reporter should work to make sure the child understands exactly what they are agreeing to—especially when it comes to the Internet. Children “will always be associated in search results with their story,” Ruiz says. “That is a very high-stakes situation for a minor.” Parents and guardians can be allies in ensuring their child understands the situation. They can initiate a family conversation about participating in the story and explain things to their child in a way they understand. Ruiz sometimes mentions that she is a parent to show her work is informed by personal experience, which can help establish trust.
Even if you have parental approval, it is important to confirm directly with the child that they want to be interviewed. Children—especially younger ones—may have a hard time conceptualizing what it means to be named or quoted in an article. Hale tells them to share only things they would feel comfortable with friends and neighbors seeing and checks in throughout an interview to confirm the child is willing to share what they’re telling her.
If you’re interviewing a child in person, arrange to talk in a quiet, private place and sit at their level rather than looming over them. If a conversation may touch on trauma, Ruiz asks the child if they need support during the interview or have someone they can talk to afterward.
As with parents, an off-the-record conversation with a younger source before the actual interview can help lay important groundwork. Villatoro explains her story’s goals, clarifies what on- and off-the-record mean, talks about the steps involved with publishing, explains why she records her interviews, and gives them ample opportunity to ask questions. “I would rather overexplain than underexplain,” she says.
Oftentimes, telling children about the fact-checking process can help calm fears they might have about misspeaking, looking foolish, or saying something they regret later.
Oftentimes, telling children about the fact-checking process can help calm fears they might have about misspeaking, looking foolish, or saying something they regret later. “There is a lot of anxiety for people when … they don’t know what’s going to end up in the story,” Ruiz says. She tells children that she will share a bullet-point list summarizing how she plans to characterize their words before publication. For particularly sensitive situations, she also tells them they can contact her before publication if they feel uncomfortable with something they said. “I don’t want [anyone] to regret speaking to me.”
Sometimes, the trust needed for a meaningful interview can take a long time to build. At the grief camp, Hale spent the better part of a weekend getting to know Miles before she sat down to interview him. She had lunch with Miles and his “big buddy,” said hello to Miles when they crossed paths, and ensured that he viewed her as a friendly face before the interview even began.
In some circumstances, a child may not have a parent, guardian, or institution to help mediate a connection, such as when freelance journalist Anjan Sundaram wrote a story in 2012 for the Indian magazine The Caravan about a homeless 13-year-old boy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo named Patience. The boy’s parents had abandoned him, and Sundaram interviewed him about his daily life during the M23 rebellion that killed hundreds of civilians and displaced hundreds of thousands more.
Sundaram spent days with the boy as he begged for food, played with his friends, and discussed his hopes and dreams. Slowly but surely, Patience began to trust Sundaram and opened up further. For this type of reporting, he says, “you can’t go at it as [just] a journalist. You have to build a relationship.” Sundaram is still in touch with Patience and says that recently, when violence again broke out in the region, he connected Patience with a contact who works for a local non-governmental organization.
Figuring Out the Best Questions
Before the interview begins, do extensive background research to make sure you aren’t asking children for information available elsewhere, such as dates of events or demographic information. “It’s important to figure out what are the three to five most important questions that I want to ask specifically to the child,” Hale says.
The types of questions you can ask may vary depending on the age of your source.
For children under the age of 10, keep questions light, short, and clear. Use neutral questions rather than leading ones. If reporting a story following a shooting, for instance, the Columbia Journalism Review notes that “What did you hear?” is a better question than “Did you hear bullets?”
Try to strike a balance between simplicity and complexity. Young kids struggle with multi-pronged questions, Hale says, but will often just answer “yes” or “no” to yes or no questions. Instead, ask straightforward questions that give space for children to answer however they want.
If the child doesn’t understand a question, Ruiz says, move on and revisit the question from a different direction later. Often, you will find the child does get it eventually.
With older kids, questions can more closely resemble those you would ask adults. Be careful not to infantilize underage sources, but keep in mind they may not have had life experiences such as travel or seeing certain movies. Older kids may also be more self-conscious about being eloquent in their answers. Ruiz reassures interviewees that they don’t have to speak in sound bites.
It’s helpful to tell younger sources that they don’t have to answer any question they don’t want to and that they can take breaks and even postpone or end the interview at any time. This is particularly important if asking a child to recount a trauma or other difficult experience.
As you talk, give your source your full attention. Maintain eye contact and allow questions to flow naturally. Sometimes, kids may be quiet while they think of an answer. Let the silence sit, Hale says, and don’t automatically affirm what they say. Villatoro remembers how, as a child, “sometimes it feels like adults just expect an answer from you, and also they may not fully listen to you.” Showing the child that you genuinely care and letting them be in control of the situation can help them open up and provide a more productive interview.
What to Do After the Interview
As you write, follow through on any promises to fact-check your story with your sources and their parents. Sources have sometimes asked Ruiz to omit a particular detail because of the potential harm it could cause. She tries to honor such requests when the information is not essential to the story but notes this has happened only a handful of times.
Even if an underage source agrees to include certain details, it is ultimately the writer’s responsibility to avoid publishing anything that might lead to harm. “As a reporter, you have that extra duty of care to … judge information that might prejudice them or hurt them later,” Sundaram says.
Stories that touch on suicide require particular care, Ruiz notes. Reporters should avoid including unnecessary or graphic details. This can both help protect young sources and minimize suicide contagion — the idea that news about suicides can trigger suicidal ideation. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention provides guidelines about ethical reporting on suicide.
In the end, stories built on young people’s voices offer readers a richer representation of the issues that affect the lives of children and youth. But just as often, Ruiz says, these experiences can be educational for the reporter, too. “Young people really are thinking about these issues. They have opinions about these issues, and more and more they’re being vocal about those opinions,” Ruiz says. “When I speak to young people … they surprise me.”
William von Herff is a freelance science journalist and former staff writer at The Provincetown Independent. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, WIRED, Smithsonian, Sierra, Altlas Obscura, Inside Climate News, and other publications. William is a TON early-career fellow sponsored by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. Find him on Substack.