Rachel Janfaza

Rachel Janfaza is a journalist covering Gen Z and its politics. Most recently, she started ‘The Up and Up,’ a newsletter focused on Gen Z’s political zeitgeist: how young Americans are organizing, mobilizing and participating in civic life and politics — or, how and why they’re not.

She’s also a fellow with the Walton Family Foundation’s Education team, where she’s working on Gen Z focused research and initiatives.

Previously, she was an associate writer on the CNN Politics team covering young voters, campaigns and breaking news. As the first writer for CNN Politics dedicated to the youth beat, Rachel wrote about the first members of Gen Z to launch campaigns for Congress, how TikTok became a political battleground and the youth mental health crisis following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Before joining CNN in 2020, she started writing about youth political culture for Teen Vogue and MTV News. Her reporting has explored youth activism around the world, from the fight against Brexit to global climate strikes, as well as initiatives to lower the voting age at the local level. And she wrote her senior thesis at Harvard College, titled “Post the Change You Wish To See: The Role of Social Media in Youth Led Social Movements from 2010-2020,” on the ways young leaders utilized social media in mass movements of the past decade.