In this reported piece, Sarah Baum, a senior at Marlboro High School in New Jersey, explains how student journalists from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, are taking on gun control in the press and using their platform to promote their message about change.

“I’m so sorry. Tonight has been madness,” Delaney Tarr, 17, of Parkland Florida, texts me. We had been trying to set up a time to talk that night. But she’d ended up spending several hours in an interview with CBS, so we agree tomorrow might be better. After all, it’s nearly midnight.

Delaney has been through a lot in the past few weeks. On February 14, she was in class at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School when a former student opened fire, killing 17 people.

Days before that, she was just a regular kid like me.

Delaney and I are a lot alike. We’re both in high school, both a little socially anxious, and we’re both student journalists.

But while I’m preparing for college and AP testing, Delaney is leading a national movement calling for gun reform, student advocacy, and government accountability. She’s spoken at the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee, been interviewed by Fox News, CNN, and Jordan Klepper’s The Opposition. She even wrote her own account of the shooting for Teen Vogue.

“It feels like we’re barely teenagers anymore,” Delaney tells Teen Vogue. “We’ve had to grow up a lot. No longer do we think about school. All we’re doing is organizing, talking to the media, strategizing, and planning. “

But, she says, “don’t call us heroes. We are only speaking until those more directly affected are ready to be heard…. All I want is for the press to focus on the movement, to focus on the victims, to focus on change. This is not about me, or Emma, or Cameron. This is not about any of us. This is about something so much bigger than any one student.

Ryan Deitsch, 18, Delaney’s classmate and fellow student journalist, also expresses frustration with the coverage surrounding the Parkland shootings. Every channel “shows a different Parkland, a different America,” he says. However, he acknowledges sensationalist media coverage is not relegated to one political party or side. The issue is bipartisan.

Ryan tells Teen Vogue, “It feels like some of these people care less about dead kids and more about ratings they can get from dead kids.” He says grieving in the public eye can be “frustrating.”

However, Ryan emphasizes that while he can be educated and politically active as a young person, he isn’t equipped to solve the problem of gun violence in America — nor should he have to be. “I’m not a lawmaker, lawyer, or politician. But I think we need strict gun laws, mental health care, more background checks...but that's just my opinion.”

Lyliah Skinner is a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas and a sports editor for the student newspaper, The Eagle Eye. At just 16, her primary concern isn’t finding a prom date or taking SATs. Rather, she constantly worries for the well-being of loved ones, like her friend, Maddy, who was shot three times in the ordeal.

She’s also “a little angry.” According to Lyliah, President Donald Trump was granted visitation before her or any of Maddy’s other close friends. “I don’t believe he really cares about her or any of us. I don’t believe he’ll do anything to prevent this from happening again.”

Despite this, Lyliah returned to class when her school reopened its doors Wednesday morning. She says the only way to move on from a tragedy like this is to create a positive change because of it.