Dearest Hillary Clinton,

Jayla Jones

More stories from Jayla Jones

Hello, or ‘wassup’, if you’d prefer that. I write to you at a time when we as young people, or millennials if you will, have a big influence on our upcoming presidential election.

In simpler terms, you need our vote…badly.

We recognize that in order to seal our vote, you need to come down to our level and relate to us.

On paper, it seems like a good strategy.

In the polls, not so much.

How is it that the Beyonce-loving, Kwanzaa-embracing, Star Wars-watching, fun Hillary Clinton is losing the support of millennials compared to other candidates, such as Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump?

According to The Harvard Institute of Politics’ annual survey of millennials, Bernie Sanders is beating you 41-35 percent among millennials who support the Democrats.

Maybe it’s because you don’t take us as seriously as you think you do. Our generation is perhaps the most involved generation of this century. We’ve marched, protested, started movements, voiced our concerns and took a stand on what we think is wrong in our society.

Yet you can only manage to speak to us through the lense of pop culture. Whether it’s taking part in trends such as ‘dabbing’, the Star Wars ‘fandom’, or just being messy on Snapchat with anti-Republican pictures, your pop culture approach can only take you so far.

You don’t need to embarrass yourself to get our vote, Mrs. Clinton. Besides, you’re doing too much and it’s gotten to the point where you’re offending minority cultures.

For example, changing your Twitter profile picture to one with a Kwanzaa twist isn’t going to attract a black audience and hasn’t sat well with them in the process. It’s not just a white-lady, black-holiday thing, it’s because you went as far as changing your entire design to a holiday you don’t represent.

Barrett Holmes Pitner of the Daily Beast said it’s common for presidential candidates to send out a message around the holidays, but Kwanzaa is a holiday created specifically for the liberation and empowerment of black people.

Pitner goes on to use an example of the Obamas sending out the message in comparison to you.

“The Obamas mentioning Kwanzaa makes sense because they are two symbols of black empowerment and advancement,” Pitner said. “This does not ring true for the Clintons at this time because Hillary is still working toward earning the support of black voters.”

One of the recent blog posts on your website is titled “7 things Hillary Clinton has in common with your abuela.” It was a blog post made by one of your Latino campaign staffers, Paola Luisi. That also didn’t sit well with the Latino audience.

It was written because you remind her of her own abuela. However, just because you remind her of her abuela doesn’t mean you remind every other Latino person of theirs.

It’s no secret that you don’t have that type of influence in that community yet, and insinuating that you do is nothing short of jumping the gun.

We understand what you’re trying to do- we appreciate the effort. However, despite what the older generation says, we care much more about the politics of our country and what affects us.

Even Joe Biden recently said Bernie Sanders is finding so much success not only with millennials, but with his campaign in general compared to you. Biden said Sanders is focusing on what’s “deep and real”, while your “focus has been on other things up to now” and that no one questions Sanders’ “authenticity” on issues.

Maybe some of those other things include spending too much time trying to impress the younger generation instead of showing us why you deserve to be our president. The route you are taking isn’t doing that and is showing that you have a noticeable weak spot in your campaign.

You are more concerned with keeping up with pop culture than directing attention towards real issues that will affect us in the future whether near or far.

Long story short, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.