Towards the end of last summer,

we published a piece by Will Self arguing that of all the groups whose livelihoods had been destabilised by the pandemic, young adults represented the hardest hit. With their education disrupted, qualifications invalidated, prospects dashed, rites of passage denied – and incarcerated in bedrooms across the country, forced to interact virtually at a time when coltish exuberance should be at its peak – the COVID-19 generation would suffer disproportionately.

“Is it any wonder that the young have become disaffected?” asked Self. “Is it any surprise that there has been an upsurge of illegal raves and civil disobedience in places inhabited by furloughed students? How can we expect a generation of young men, who have been taught and bombarded with the prices of everything, to understand the value of anything, including their own lives?”

It was a prescient critique. Its central position continues to be borne out by emerging evidence. Research published in February by the nonprofit organisation Impacted showed that GCSE pupils were the least engaged in schoolwork and had the lowest learning and well-being scores. Government research into how the pandemic has affected students in higher education found that 53% of students were dissatisfied, with many reporting lower levels of purpose and happiness and higher levels of anxiety. Meanwhile, a recent survey by a money advice website found that university students have wasted nearly £1bn on empty rooms because of coronavirus restrictions.

This is a situation that will worsen before it improves. True, at the time of writing, there is much to be hopeful about: 25% of the UK population has received at least one vaccine dose; the daily rate of COVID-19 cases has fallen to a fifth of that in mid-January. But I’m still writing this two months into the third lockdown with many weeks left. My adolescent son is on half-term – not that this makes much difference to his life, because he’s still spending 23 hours a day in his room, albeit many of them unconscious. He’s due to sit GCSEs in 18 months, though no one seems sure whether that will happen. He is uncommunicative, disconsolate, demotivated – and yes, I know that’s part of a teenager’s job description, but it’s more than that. I worry about his mental well-being more than anything else at the moment.

It’s all too easy to feel helpless, so it’s equally important to recognise privilege when you have it. Prescient though our Generation C story might have been, it’s simply not the Men’s Health way to sit smugly on gloomy prognostications, however pertinent. We may have predicted the challenges facing this demographic, but what did we intend to do about them? This issue is our response.

Raising awareness of a situation is important but its effect is limited. So, rather than just talking about the problems facing Generation C, we decided to talk directly to them. More than that, we made an effort to recruit young adults – and pay them a proper fee – to talk directly to you. Men and women between the ages of 17 and 23 have been involved in the production of this magazine throughout, from writers and interviewers to personal trainers and scientific researchers.

To kick things off, 17-year-old Ibrahim Aires – a former Men’s Health cover star and a leading voice in our “Male Mental Health: The Next Generation” feature from 2019 – interviews 65-year-old David Willetts, the president of the Resolution Foundation, about intergenerational inequality. Willetts, of course, was the Conservative minister responsible for universities who proposed that tuition fees be raised to their current level. Ibrahim doesn’t let him elide this fact. Later on, in an impressive piece of reportage, editors of the student newspaper Exeposé deliver a stark, thought-provoking account of university life on hold in lockdown. Elsewhere, Guardian Scott Trust Bursary journalist Alex Mistlin repudiates Gen X orthodoxy and makes a compelling case for social media as a positive force and a boon for our psychological health.

In short, this is an issue produced by Generation C for Generation C – oh, and you. After all, aren’t we all supposed to be in it together?