Local Focus: Whizz-kid aiming to connect youth to politics

Ben Sokimi is not your average teenager.

The Tauranga youth is producing a web series with the aim of getting young people interested in politics.

"Considering I am only 16, and there is obviously a huge passion for politics, to me that is a marketable thing," Sokimi said.

"I feel that if I didn't do anything with it, that it would be a wasted talent. A wasted opportunity."

Sokimi discovered a passion for being in front of the camera, and it seems to come naturally.

"I reached out and got a few people around me to start a series that could create insightful and meaningful conversation around the issues of the day.

"Everything I do is unscripted. I ad-lib everything. I research my topics extensively before presenting them on camera, on whatever day our shoot is."

More than 30 per cent of enrolled voters aged 18 to 35 did not vote in the 2017 election, and Ben is hoping his series can help change that.

"To me the best way to connect with them is to make politics more entertaining, because that is what the generation of the millenials are about.

"As well as having content across social media - small, snackable content that still gets a message across within that."

The confident teen is looking towards a career in broadcasting.

He's already interviewed the likes of Simon Bridges and Jan Tinetti - but does he consider himself humble?

"I think so, I think so, but I can also see why people might think otherwise."

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