They won’t be able to vote in November, but the teens who planned and hosted a candidate forum that included a congressman and an assemblyman still wanted to make sure Long Beach residents had the chance to meet their leaders.

The forum featured Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-CA; Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell, D-Long Beach; State Assembly candidate  Honor “Mimi” Robson, a representative for Sen. Dianne Feinstein and California State Board of Equalization candidate G. Rick Marshall.

Jolie Reeder, a McBride High School senior, contacted them and every candidate on the Long Beach ballot over the past two weeks, to ask them to participate in the forum hosted by her club, the March for Our Lives McBride chapter.

March for Our Lives is a movement that grew out of student activism and outrage after a school shooting in Parkland, Fla. left 17 students and teachers dead in February. Thousands marched in Long Beach and across the nation calling for gun control.

The 17-year-old organized and executed the event studiously, carrying around a clipboard while passing out question cards to the audience and making sure those cards got back up to the moderator.

Questions centered on how the candidates wanted to deal with homelessness, gun control and student activism.

Reeder enlisted the help of a core group of five or so March for Our Lives Long Beach students, as well as her mom and her brothers for the event.

“She was the boss, I would just do what she told me to do,” said her mom, Janice Reeder. “I wanted to honor that it was a student movement.”

Jolie actually got involved with March for Our Lives Long Beach after her mom reached out to the group and was told it was a student-only organization—no parents allowed.

When the teen was helping in organizing the massive March for Our Lives Long Beach event in March, Janice—like most moms—was worried about the details: Were they missing permits? What about bathrooms?

“I called the city council and they said, ‘Sorry, ma’am, it’s student-led only,'” she said.

Since then, she’s stepped back and just helped where she could, making suggestions and lending a hand.

“I’m really proud of her, she speaks well for herself,” Janice said. “I listened to her earlier on the phone, she had push back (about the event) from a strong-minded activist, but she held her own.”

The event brought a little more than 40 people, but was also live-streamed on Facebook and Instagram, where viewers could submit questions.

Millikan High School freshman Miles Murray was tasked with one of the live-streams. He got involved with the movement after the Parkland shooting.

“Parkland was really awful and I realized, ‘Hey, I’m a student too, I should help too,'” Murray said.

The 14-year-old won’t be able to vote until the 2022 elections, but it’s not stopping him from getting involved now.

“I want to make as much of a difference as I can before I can vote because I’m passionate about this subject and I want to see change,” he said.

Emma Gonzalez, a freshman at Wilson High School, said she got started helping out with the march and the school walkouts in April.

“The thought that (a school shooting) could happen is very poignant,” Gonzalez said. The 14-year-old styles her hair short and cropped, almost like the now-famous activist and Parkland shooting survivor of the same name.

It’s crucial for her to be informed even if she can’t vote yet, she said.

“A lot of these candidates are important legacies to understand,” Gonzalez said.

While the turnout for the forum was small, she called every person who walked through the door a “small victory.”