Top 10 Voice Articles of 2024

It has been a great year for Voice, so why not celebrate that by exploring 10 brilliant articles from our team and community of young journalists?

Top 10 Voice Articles of 2024

Christmas is a great time to sit back and look at the year that has just passed. It's been all change here at Voice Magazine, with Tom Beasley joining the team in August as our new editor. We've run some big editorial themes, including Kick Some Class and In This Climate, as well as The 2024 Election Insider and Community Power. Our various groups have also contributed dozens of reviews, covering everything from theatre and film to books and ballet.

So, while we're in a reflective mood, we've decided to highlight 10 of the best articles published on Voice this year. We've included a variety of pieces to try to cover as much of what Voice has to offer as possible, from Voice Reviewers to Voice Contributors and more. In no particular order, here are 10 of the year's biggest Voice highlights.


Kick Some Class: Interview with Bridgerton star Claudia Jessie

Claudia Jessie in Bridgerton(Credit: Netflix)

Our editor Tom Beasley got the chance to hop on a Zoom call with Claudia Jessie, who plays Eloise on Bridgerton, to talk about her experience as a working class actor trying to make her way in the profession. 

Best quote: "I don't feel like it's equal. 65% of British Oscar winners were privately educated, yet not even 5% of the country was privately educated. So I've never been one for maths, but it don't look good, does it?"


In This Climate: My evening with Extinction Rebellion

An environmental activist holds a banner saying 'I'm scared'(Credit: Alisdare Hickson)

During her time as part of the Voice Contributor programme, Mimi Waters wrote this thoughtful blog about attending an Extinction Rebellion meeting out of curiosity during the time she spent living near one of the headquarters for the activist group.

Best quote: "Even thinking about the climate crisis felt hopeless. This pressure has shaped my generation. For us, the climate crisis isn’t some distant worry – it’s our reality. Every heatwave or storm is just another reminder that this isn’t going away."


How to create authentic community: Lessons from youth-led Marginal Publishing

Sophie Lockwood, author and illustrator

The world of publishing and literature is dominated by big corporate interests and it's difficult to break free of the status quo. Sienna James met with the people behind Marginal Publishing and spoke to them about how their youth-led publisher could be a big voice in the future.

Best quote: "Seeing things from so many different perspectives and walks or stages of life has made me look at my own way of writing and storytelling and be able to pick apart my own experiences in more detail than I thought I was originally able to do."


Do we still need Black History Month?

Activists hold placards at a Black Lives Matter demo(Credit: G. Miessi)

This October, Faron Spence-Small decided to explore the status of Black History Month and whether it has any worth as an annual event in the modern era. It's a fascinating and insightful piece with a really interesting perspective.

Best quote: "Mass media and history would have us believe that Black people from Africa and the Caribbean only arrived in Britain in the Windrush era, when in fact, they have been here since the days of the Roman Empire."


My class convenience store: What class means to me

General shot of fruit and veg in a convenience store(Credit: Steve Buissinne/Pixabay)

The idea of class struggle is a very serious one, but Voice Contributor Brogan Flowers had a lot of fun with the idea in this blog. She imagines social class as being similar to the shelf on which we might find ourselves in a supermarket of capitalist structure.

Best quote: "I think our society is a forced performance – a show put on by those who put themselves there, the government. They direct our lives as much as our heart pumps blood and that makes them diabolical stage managers in the performance of our lives."


Reality TV pushes people to their limits for maximum entertainment

Padlocks on a rope, with a red heart-shaped lock in the cente(Credit: Petar Milošević)

Many of us would consider reality TV to be one of our ultimate guilty pleasures. Amy Reilly, one of our 2024 class of Voice Contributors, shares that same joy. However, she also wanted to explore the ways in which producer manipulation affects the "reality" we see on screen.

Best quote: "When filming, the participants’ sense of reality must be completely warped. So to come out and be targeted by millions of people must have a huge impact on their mental health, especially if they haven’t even done anything and it is just the producers twisting the truth."


The Young Vote: Do all young people vote alike?

Banner image for The Young Vote series

In the early part of 2024, Sienna James ran an editorial series about young people and voting, ahead of a bumper year of elections. In this piece, she reacts to a survey of young readers and analyses what it means for young people and politics.

Best quote: "Not a single respondent felt political parties understood the issue faced by young people, and only 35% felt that they 'somewhat' understood. Survey respondents recognised that the UK electoral system facilitates a political environment where governing parties only care about winning seats rather than reaching minority groups such as young people."


Local Voices, National Impact: The Women Shaping Regional Theatre

The team behind It's Nott Working(Credit: Shashank Dhongadi)

Elisha Pearce has been both a Voice Reviewer and a Voice Contributor in 2024, bringing her year to a close with this terrific piece looking at the way young women in the Midlands are trying to make their voices known in the world of theatre.

Best quote: "I have an internal deal with myself that whatever I do will always be fuelled back into the East Midlands. Just because you move from an area doesn’t mean you have to lose your connection to it."


Make Good: The Post Office Scandal — A musical miscarriage of justice

Poster art for Make Good, a musical about the Post Office scandal(Credit: Pentabus)

Primrose Jarvis, both a Local Reviewer and a Voice Contributor, saw this unique musical in Ludlow based on the Post Office scandal and wrote a tremendous review. In a year that has seen the scandal consistently be headline news, this was a very different perspective.

Best quote: "It is a musical about an event that could have been bought off, rewritten and shoved under a rug. But it wasn’t, because a few resilient, hurt and wrongfully disgraced individuals came together and decided that it was wrong."


A musician’s guide to networking

A man plays drums next to someone else holding a saxophone(Credit: StockSnap/Pixabay)

The world of music study can be an intimidating one, so Candelaria Gómez provided some tips on how to make the most of every opportunity that comes your way during the early part of your time in the industry.

Best quote: "The key is to remember that you’re most likely not the only one in your situation. Talking to other people, getting to know each other, and bonding in different activities can be helpful here. Stepping out of your comfort zone (as hard as it seems) can result in enriching and lasting friendships."


We hope you've enjoyed taking a look back at some of the best Voice Magazine articles from 2024. For more on the best culture of the last year, check out our other 2024 Top 10s. Find out our picks for the best movies, best music, and best TV.

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