Sophie Billinghurst

Sophie was a Member of the first Welsh Youth Parliament from 2018 to 2021.

The following was his candidate statement for election to the first Welsh Youth Parliament:

My Key Issues are:

• Negative effects of social media
• deaf issues
• Lowering the voting age

Hello, my name is Sophie Billinghurst I am 16 years old.

I live in fforestfach, Swansea West. I am currently a year 11 student at Bishop Gore comprehensive and currently doing my gcses.

I am a member of Talking hands in Hafod, Swansea which is a centre for deaf or hard of hearing children, young people, and their family it gives them support and helps meet new families in the same situations as you.

I’ve been a part of talking hands for 3 and a half years, the reason me and my family started going to talking hand is because my 12-year-old sister Charli is hard of hearing since then I have become friends with so many people, and have done loads of amazing events such as west midlands safari park, folly farm plus Christmas and Halloween parties.

I’ve recently completed the BSL level 1 qualification which means a lot to me as I want to be able to teach bsl to my family and friends for them to pass what they know on to others.