Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s charity has released a report highlighting the importance of authenticity to young people-but the findings chime with numerous major criticisms of the couple throughout their post-royal lives.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s archewell Foundation conducted interviews with 106 young people aged 10 to 25 across the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Panama to find out what they look for in leaders.
And it found that young people have grown tired of the inauthenticity of influencer culture, preferring role models who are not motivated by profit and make an impact for causes they care passionately about.
The findings are striking but make difficult reading alongside the facts of the first five years of Harry and Meghan’s U.S. lives, which saw them sign multimillion-dollar deals for content creation.In fact, certain passages of the report could serve as a convincing explanation of the couple’s decline in public opinion during the years in which audiences appeared to grow tired of their narrative about the royal rift.
A Sussex source disputed this point to Newsweek: “To cast all young people as though they would take umbrage with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for making money,is just an oversimplified assessment of who they are as people and what I think that report is trying to say.
“Young people, as it relates to the brands and the things that they associate with or feel an affinity to, are largely driven by activism. It’s why young people love Ben and Jerry’s. It’s why young people love Patagonia.
“It’s why young people love activist-driven brands and if you were to look at harry and Meghan as an activist-driven brand, which I would argue they are, they focus on showing up, doing good, and handing over a disproportionate amount of their wealth compared to the average Joe to good causes.
“That they have to make money is a moot point. We all do, unless your a member of the institution (royal family).”
The Archewell Foundation‘s Report on Authentic Leaders
The report concludes that “four consistent themes emerge in how youth define leadership in the digital age,” which are that “true leadership is about authenticity and credibility,” that “true leadership is not about money or followers,” that “true leaders take action and show impact, and that “true leadership often starts offline.”
“In an online world flooded with ‘fake’ personas and curated perfection, authenticity is the gold standard for true leadership,” the report states.
“Young people see real leadership as requiring honesty about one’s life and struggles,” the report continues, “rather than promoting unrealistic standards.”
Meanwhile, the report’s authors note that “the term ‘influencer’ is seen as innately profit-motivated. For example, in Panama, a young person remarked, ‘Influencers focus more on marketing to sell you something, and the end game is to make money and to get views, as that’s how they win. But we win absolutely nothing.'”
“These digital nativ
Harry and Meghan’s Shifting Narrative
I2kr4″>Numerous statements from Harry and Meghan have faced scrutiny, and their claim regarding a discussion about their son’s skin color remains particularly controversial.
I2kr4″>This marked the first indication that Harry and Meghan did not endorse the interpretation that Meghan accused the royals of racism, after nearly two years of related headlines.
I2kr4″>Allison P. Davis of The Cut interviewed Meghan after visiting her Montecito mansion and observed: “Though she has been media trained and then royal-media trained and sometimes converses like she has a tiny Bachelor producer in her brain directing what she says (at one point in our conversation, instead of answering a question, she will suggest how I might transcribe the noises she’s making: ‘She’s making these guttural sounds, and I can’t quite articulate what it is she’s feeling in that moment because she has no word for it; she’s just moaning’), at this stage, post-royal, there’s no need for her to hold back.