Name: Grace Zia 

Occupation: College Student 

Hometown: Washington, DC 

Tell me a little bit about yourself. How long have you lived in DC? 

I’m a first-year in college now, and I was born in DC and lived in DC for the first eighteen years of my life. 

What do you love most about living in DC? 

I just love being able to live in the capital of the country and see history unfold. I feel like there’s always something really cool happening everyday, and a lot of amazing things that are happening in this country take place in DC. I also just love being able to meet people from all around the world and learn about them and their experiences. 

Could you talk about your own experience not having voting representation in our government? 

In both high school and college, I’ve been surrounded by peers who have had the ability to vote for their senators and representatives. When I turned eighteen in DC, I didn’t really gain all that much power. When I turned eighteen, I really wanted the opportunity to vote for someone who had the best interests of my city in mind and whose job was to take care of the best interests of where I lived and the people in DC. I would really just love the same opportunity to have that and I would love for the voices of young people like me to be heard and for us to be able to have control over what’s happening in the place where we live. Given that Congress controls DC, it would be great if we had the ability to choose and put our voice out there in these conversations about what’s happening in DC. 

What does achieving statehood mean for you? 

Achieving statehood for me means being able to have a voice in government, which is one of the founding principles that this country is built upon — everybody having a say. Being in the capital of this country, it doesn’t make a lot of sense that we’re the ones who don’t have a voice. I would just love to continue to make sure that everybody in this country, and in my city, gets the voice that they deserve.  

What do you think needs to be done to get closer to achieving statehood? 

Obviously, it’s becoming increasingly difficult, but I think that bipartisan support of this issue and recognition that this is a really prominent issue that could have a really big difference on a lot of people's lives are two things that need to happen in order to push this movement forward. 

[this interview was conducted in January 2026]