But she’s no stranger to power having been deputy youth MP last year and a youth councillor for the six months before that.
College student Laura is studying maths, physics, French and politics at college but plans to visit every high school in Salford to seek the views of the young people she now represents.
And she’s encouraging them to use social media to contact her and keep her work under scrutiny.
Laura said: “I am extremely passionate about improving mental health support for young people. We are in an unfortunate situation whereby having services which are over capacity means that, for many, the situation is getting far worse.
“I think if schools were better equipped to offer mental health support; if they promoted wellbeing and taught about mental health to shrink the still evident stigma, we would improve the situation for many.
“By working with schools (both students and teachers), as well as the Local Authority I will work to ensure every school does this and to a high quality – we shouldn’t be cutting corners when it comes to the wellbeing of a person.”
During her year of office Laura, will represent young people from Salford and Salford Youth Council at bi-monthly north west forums and at the annual sitting of the UK Youth Parliament where MYPs create a manifesto for national consultation.
After the Make Your Mark national survey the most popular topics are debated by the MYPs at a House of Commons event in November. Two are then chosen to be national youth campaigns, the current two being the Living Wage and mental health.
