You’ve likely heard it a million times, “why are you trusting a 22 year old to manage your brand’s social presence.” I know I have. In fact, this article prominently states:

“You’d never give the intern permission to write the corporate press release to accompany an earnings announcement, so why the hell are you listening to the 22-year-old who says, “we’re going to do this social media thing because it’s cool?”

But you know what, I would listen to them. I have. And I’ll do it again. Yes, interns may be inexperienced, they may make mistakes — but it has nothing to do with age. Many times, it has to do with inadequate training by their superiors (who are the ones that make those blanketed claims), or flaws in a hiring process. Lack of direction, lack of guidance, or simple human error. If you want someone to do the job right, hire the right person. For that matter, everyone makes mistakes. I make mistakes, senior level execs make mistakes, any person that isn’t a robot makes mistakes. Even robots make mistakes.

When I was 22, I had acted as editor of two sites with over 1 million views/month, consulted for a variety of brands, written tons of press releases, been featured in numerous publications, and was managing the social accounts for 3 global brands. One of my friends had made some of the first social networking sites for MTV & Comedy Central, was running a consultancy firm and making this. Another one was an art director at Walton Isaacson. Another was a human rights officer for the Canadian Government and running the street team for Ruff House Records. Age has nothing to do with work ethic, work experience, or intelligence. As cliche as it is — age actually is just a number. The number of years you’ve spent on this planet. How you chose to spend those, whether it be screwing up your life, or working hard to make something of it, determines what kind of person you’ll be at 22. Working hard should never have to be a fault. I have, as have many of my friends, had to apologize countless times throughout my life for my age. We’ve been disrespected, laughed at, not taken seriously, simply because of the number of years we’ve spent on this planet. It sounds ridiculous, but it’s true.

There are good writers and bad writers. There are hard workers and lazy people. I, for one, am more than happy to give responsibility to a 20 year old and a 21 year old to manage a 650K+ network. I listen to them, use their ideas, let them build and execute campaigns, write, post, respond. I trust them, I hired them, I trained them, they know what to do, they know when to ask for help, and they understand our brand. Discrediting their abilities because of their age is just simply wrong. False.

With marketers obsessed with all things “millenials” do/like/are, attributing age to work abilities seems like a problem that will never go away. For those young people that are talented, hard working, and deserve the responsibilities they have earned through experience, we’re here for you. Brands like Wet Seal, Rolling Stone, Facebook and XBox are here for you. We were you, we still are you, and we work every day to push forward in our industries and change the opinions on our age through the quality of our work. Keep working.