The current political crisis over Brexit has been a wake-up call for my generation: the doctrine that our parents and grandparents will leave behind a better world no longer holds. But, of course, not every young person feels this way. A significant minority – especially those in towns outside London and the south-east – do not necessarily share the enthusiasm of the 78% of young people who would back remain in a people’s vote on Brexit. And those that do will often have different reasons for their convictions too. We don’t want to leave them behind.

This summer the campaign I’m part of, Our Future Our Choice, will join a tour of the whole country, calling on politicians to let us be heard. We will be gathering in Wolverhampton, Sunderland, Leeds, Glasgow, Derby, Belfast and many more towns and cities over the summer, leading up to one more huge rally in London on 12 October.

From our visits to schools, youth centres and universities across the UK over the past year, it’s already clear to us that young people’s anti-Brexit sentiment is more complicated than the typical image you might see on marches, with demonstrators draped in the blue and gold of the EU flag.

Instead, the strongest voices demanding a people’s vote come from those who have been politicised out of necessity: those who see our horizons retreating and our prospects receding, and who have watched the last three years with unease that has turned to disgust and anger.

Rebecca Coleman, 21, is a young activist from Brentwood, Essex, where 59% of voters opted to leave in 2016. Until recently, her parents had stopped talking about Brexit. But, she says, “I’m so involved in it now that we can’t help but talk about it.”

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Has it changed minds? “I think my mum voted to leave and that she feels there was a lot of misinformation. Talking about it has made us both much more confident about what should happen next.”

Rebecca’s example shows how, through their families, young people – especially in leave areas – can still have a significant impact on changing attitudes towards Brexit.

Tara Connolly, 21, from west Belfast co-founded Our Future Our Choice Northern Ireland to bring young people from all communities together. “This idea that young anti-Brexit campaigners are ‘the elite’ or ‘idealistic’ is so frustrating,” she says. “Our entire campaign … is about the hard facts of a border in the event of a no deal.” She hates the stereotype that all young people care about is their ability to travel across Europe hassle-free.

The rallies we’ll be holding in every corner of Britain this summer will seek to redefine this image, carving out a more accurate picture of the scope of anger and activism in a campaign that has come so far in representing so many.

Meanwhile, the one in 400 UK citizens who are members of the Conservative party prepare to pick a prime minister for the rest of us. This small, wholly unrepresentative segment of society are deciding the future direction of this country at a time of total political paralysis. They are granted their proxy referendum on Brexit, yet the nation at large is denied a right to the same.

This summer of youth action will be a welcome break from the Tory psychodrama. It will be a source of hope for those feeling hopeless – and for all those who believe in the democratic right of the British public to resolve this crisis ourselves.

• Lara Spirit is co-president of Our Future Our Choice

• This article was amended on 24 June 2019 as the caption in an earlier version stated that the picture was of a “pro-Brexit” march