“Adults have really boring ideas” is what we repeatedly learn from our participatory research with young people. Nevertheless, it is common practice that adults design research, questionnaires and interventions for young people. Not surprisingly, many research initiatives, questionnaires and interventions are utterly boring and a bad fit for the intended population. Consequently, many research efforts go to waste.

We call for an urgent change from research ‘on’ young people towards research ‘with’ and ‘for’ young people. Researchers are adults, viewing the world and designing their research from an adult perspective. Young people are not small adults. They have their own lived experience, language and aspirations. We are confident that actively involving young people in research will improve not only the validity of our research but also its relevance to and benefits for the young people themselves. Here, we share some of the wisdom we have gained from the knowledge that we cultivated together with young people (aged 9 years and older).