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Cara Nicole she spends her days sorting through aesthetic stockpiling videos and useless celebrity products. Her humorous, spotlight videos on financial literacy have earned her more than 222,000 subscribers on YouTube, where she goes by the handle @thefinancialfreedomgirl.

Recently, Nicole and a group of other creators took to Capitol Hill to talk about a perhaps less fun but no less important fiscal topic: taxes. The event, spearheaded by Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Tina Smith of Minnesota, was dedicated to highlighting the looming fight over Donald Trump’s future. Sweeping tax cuts in 2017. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act resulted in nearly $2 trillion in tax cuts that greatly benefited large corporations and high-income earners. Some key provisions of the law are set to expire at the end of 2025, but could be extended next year depending on who controls Congress. That’s why Senators Warren and Smith recruited a group of creators to help spread the word about what they call the “2025 Tax Fight” to diverse young audiences on social media.

Teen Vogue We caught up with Nicole to learn more about her experiences at the event and how she uses content creation to encourage civic engagement.

This conversation has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

Teen Vogue: What was it like to be a part of the recent tax challenge event in DC?

Cara Nicole: I’d only seen (the senators) on TV before, and when I see them in real life, there’s that surreal moment… you’re like, “Oh, wow, they’re real people. They are living and breathing. “They’re not just pixels on the screen.” But it was also surreal, like a history buff, to be at the Capitol and to be in a place that I’ve been studying for so long. Learning about tax policy and economics and the way we convey that to everyday people has been really impactful for me as someone who creates content that tries to explain complex money topics to people and make people feel engaged.

TV: How would you summarize the key components of the 2025 Tax Challenge for your audience?

CN: I talked to Senator Warren about this exact issue: trickle down economics. I’ve heard this phrase before, but I don’t think I’ve ever fully digested it or examined it in depth. Apparently, there was a part of me that understood logic in the past. So I thought, “Okay, if you cut taxes, maybe that money will go to increasing employee wages.” (According to) some of the data we’ve collected since Senator Warren and Trump’s tax cuts (according to their comments) – because (they) create a very good case study of whether this works(d) – when we cut these (taxes), that trickle down We did not see it decrease. Instead, we just higher executive salary And stock buybacks(shareholder wealth is often increased when a company buys back its own outstanding shares). One of the rare benefits of Trump’s tax cuts is that we can see much more clearly that trickle-down economics does not work. So what else can we do? What are other ways? Maybe we tax some of the ultra-rich and make sure that money goes to programs that can actually help people, like more affordable education and health care. And again, tax policy is one of the ways we need to get to that point and one of the ways we need to think about getting to a better future.

TV: What were the biggest takeaways from this event?

CN: How unfair the current tax law is. Donald Trump in 2017 make some tax cuts. (Some of the provisions are set to expire next year (eventually) in 2025, and that’s the focus of the tax fight: to try to overhaul those rules and make sure they don’t renew them, but make sure we create something different.… Like public school teachers, police officers, firefighters ordinary people, I didn’t realize it but they We pay more taxes (in percentage terms) than Jeff Bezos. And this doesn’t make any sense. We’re talking about wanting a better country. One thing I love about younger generations is that we talk about wanting better, more affordable healthcare and education, more affordable housing, and cleaner energy; These are all great things. But we don’t always know how this happens. And tax policy, although it may seem very boring and unattractive at first glance, is one of the steps we must take to achieve a better future, and part of that is ensuring that billionaires and the ultra-rich just pay their taxes. fair share.

TV: What do you think your involvement as an influencer says about the growing importance of content creators in shaping the political economy and the way we perceive the world?

CN: I think influencers are really good at curating a community or creating a community that resonates with what they speak to and their message. When you can engage influencers to learn about politics, policy changes, and different calls to action, they can digest it and deliver it to their audience in their own unique way. It is becoming a more decentralized way for us to transfer important information and important movements. I’m excited for influencers to become a bigger part of this ecosystem, and I hope it continues that way.

TV: Do you have any messages for government officials as influencers continue to shape our interactions with news and information?

CN: Don’t underestimate the power of social media and influencers, because a big part of changing policy and improving our society is being able to get important messages across to people, and influencers can be ambassadors of change. They can help you communicate complex issues that you can clearly see (see). Other people, like influencers, can also take a step back and break it down into something easier to understand for their audience and ordinary people.

But you can also potentially create the content yourself. I’ve seen different politicians start to create their own content and do it like this. inspired by FDR Fireside chats via different social media platforms. I think this is very nice too. It’s just about being able to talk to people and break down their topics to make them feel more accessible. I think social media can be a very powerful tool for this.

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First appeared on: Teen Vogue

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