Hillary, pay your interns: Column If you want to inspire Millennials, don't let us boomerang. Save us from the unemployment line.

Carolyn Osorio | USA TODAY

As the high school girl who slept in a Hillary for President T-shirt for most of 2007, cried when she conceded to Barack Obama, railed at Congress during the Benghazi hearings and was an early follower of Texts from Hillary, I took heart from the 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign had created.

When Hillary announced her second run for the White House, I felt my passion for politics reignite. I quickly applied for and was offered a position as a Hillary for America fellow to work on the campaign. I couldn't have been more excited — until I was told I'd have to move to Nevada and work full time on my own dime.

I couldn't believe my ears. I did not apply as a routine volunteer but as a fellow. Its application process with an elaborate screening and interview process was now revealed to be an ugly lie. If Hillary hopes to inspire young people, to prove she understands our interests she should offer substance to earn our votes.

Cheap, cheap

The campaign's "cheapness" is being lauded as a successful step away from her failure in 2008. Voters are evidently supposed to feel pleased with Hillary's miserly commercial flights (in first class) and economical Amtrak trips while discounting her unpaid staff's out-of-pocket expenses as simply smart business.

I had hoped a trailblazer would be more willing to break the mold of indentured servitude that haunts my generation. Finding out that Hillary perpetuates the exploitation known as unpaid internships was like discovering that Santa wasn't real.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Unpaid work is common in campaigns, and as secretary of State, Hillary worked for the Obama administration. At the same time the administration was cracking down on unpaid internships in the private sector, it continued not paying the 300 annual interns in the White House.

Obama's wave of Millennial support in 2008 emphasized the importance of the youth vote. The Clinton campaign has already started to court young people as evident in her huge social media efforts right out of the gate, even enlisting Beyoncé.

But it doesn't bode well that a campaign seeking younger voters would callously overlook my generation's biggest struggle: employment. Nearly 14% of us are unemployed. After two straight years of unemployment, I thought things were looking up with a potential Hillary victory.

Internships, once a prestigious foot-in-the-door experience, have increasingly been shown to be an abusive way for employers to gain free labor. I had bad experiences at unpaid internships in California and New York. I promised myself when I graduated two years ago to never let anyone do that to me again.

Minimum wage

For a woman I supported to demand this of me felt repulsive. Forget arguments about raising the minimum wage. I can't even get a wage. What exactly are Hillary Clinton's priorities and how do I change them?

I'm sure people will read this and think, "Well, that's how it has always been. Who is this 20-something girl to complain?" To that I say: the traditional family used to be the "way it's always been," until we changed it.

So, Hillary, I ask you to question your role in this exploitative system. My generation is in trouble. Young people today are put in the impossible position of trading their self-worth just to survive.

Our struggles are devalued as the first world problems of ungrateful children. At what point do the expectations that young people ought be grateful go too far? If we aren't getting paid, we should be grateful to have the experience. If we don't get the job, we should be grateful we even got the interview. If we're passed up for a promotion, we should be grateful we have a job. If we lose our job, we should be grateful we have a spouse or parent who can take care of us. At what point is it actually worse?

It might make me sound like a Stockholm syndrome victim, but after all of this, Hillary is still the best chance we have. If there is to be a better world for my future children, she's the only hope.

Hillary will get my free vote even if she will never have my free help.

Carolyn G. Osorio is a former barista and a graduate of Pratt Institute.

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