Youth Advisory Council 2025

Jess Stone (she/they) is a 19-year-old youth advocate based in Brisbane, drawing on her lived experience of mental ill-health. Her advocacy is deeply informed by her journey as a CSAM survivor, a queer woman, and an autistic person. Jess’s recent work centres on tech-facilitated abuse and sexual exploitation, with a strong focus on the mental health impacts faced by young survivors.

By day, Jess is a law and humanities student; by night, she works as a government paralegal and youth policy consultant. Her contributions to youth and child protection policy span both State and Federal levels, most recently through a project with the eSafety Commissioner and a co-design initiative with the ACU Institute of Child Protection Studies. She serves as a youth advisor to both NAPCAN and the Raise Foundation, spoke at the 2025 Queensland Family and Child Commission Youth Summit, and is a former Youth Parliamentarian.

Beyond the mental health and child protection sectors, Jess was named a 2025 Young Woman to Watch in International Relations. She currently serves as Queensland State Secretary for United Nations Youth Australia and as the Asia-Pacific regional liaison for Sustainable Development Solutions Network Youth. As a World Economic Forum Global Shaper and incoming Hub Curator, she will represent Brisbane at the Forum’s headquarters in Geneva later this year.

Jess is a recipient of multiple 7NEWS Community Achievement Awards and was recently shortlisted for Lawyers Weekly’s Legal Operations Professional of the Year.