A new generation is stepping up. There are now 26 millennials in congress--a fivefold increase gained in the last midterms. They're governing over Midwestern cities and college towns, sitting on city councils and running for state legislatures. Some of them have been in office for a few years; one of them is running for president. They're acting urgently on climate change (because they're going to live it); they care deeply about student debt (because they have it); they're utilizing big tech but still want to legislate it (because they understand how it works). In The Ones We've been Waiting For, TIME correspondent Charlotte Alter defines the class of young leaders who are remaking the nation: how grappling with 9/11 as teens, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, occupying Wall Street and protesting with Black Lives Matter, and shouldering their way into a financially rigged political system while being mired in student debt has informed a generation--politically, socially, and culturally--and what America will look like when they're in charge.

In this prescient look at the next generation of politics, Charlotte Alter gives the big-picture look at not only the change that tomorrow's leaders are already putting into place, but what we have to look forward to in a time usually marked by pessimism and political despair. Millennials--though credited for ruining everything from relationships to avocadoes to America itself--have already revolutionized technology, commerce and media and are responsible for major social movements of our time. The Ones We've Been Waiting For is a hopeful glimpse into a newer, younger, brighter political future.