Yo, Familia! We’re back again, this time taking a sharp left turn into something completely out of the box. We just wrapped up at the Youth Stakeholder Engagement 2025, where we got deep into conversations about the automotive industry and the opportunities being carved out for the youth.
I know, we’re a culture-centered, creativity-driven page, so this might feel like a wild shift. But honestly? It intrigued me. We’ve been ideating content that speaks to niche groups/ movements/ industries/people shaping the creative space in ways that often go undocumented. From spinning to tattoo artistry, we want to be in the thick of it all, capturing what doesn’t always get a platform. (If you’ve got connects or insights, hit our DMs!)
Now, back to the event, I’ve always felt car culture and the automotive industry plays a unique and underrated role in creativity. It’s not just about the machines; it’s about the worlds they connect. Fashion collabs with luxury cars, musicians becoming the soundtrack to every late-night drive, the aesthetics, the lifestyle, it’s all intertwined. Sitting at this intersection, getting firsthand insight into the industry itself, was an incredible experience.
The youth stakeholder engagement had a 2 simple goals and a clear vision, they created and conceptualised this event to try and provide a lane for the youth to get into the automotive industry, but not only that but empowering them to show them the possibilities that lie beyond what is just shown in school/everyday life.
The engagement went on to speak about innovation challenges that South Africa has faced, it guided a extremely conversation on our position within the automotive market both locally and internationally, showing us the large scale contribution the automotive industry has played in our economy.
Through conversations and presentations from the likes of BMW and Nissan representatives, we got insight to not only how the South African market performs but also the opportunity that lays before the youth today on how they could be apart of these brands but at a general sense got they could engage in the automotive industry.
A really beautiful thing to note was their encouragement to open their perspectives to not look to join the labour force but take advantages of the gaps in the market and embrace their entrepreneurial spirit, no longer looking to feed into the ideas of others but builds legacies and systems of their own as entrepreneurs
We got a tour within the Yanfeng warehouse where this was able to really put into perspective the size and scale of what is happening in the automotive industry as the warehouse ‘s main focus is to make car doors, in this part of the journey I really got an understanding of just how many jobs could be created from just one warehouse or the production of one part of a car!
Overall it was a really insightful and interesting experience , giving me greater understanding of the automotive industry and the doors that could be opened in the future. I look forward into diving into more car culture, whether it’s us going to meet ups, interviewing spinners or just generally documenting it, I feel like that’s a space that needs its time to shine now!
