Youth temporalities in identity boxes: own objects as embodiments of past and future transitions

This article examines how young Italians who completed secondary school and entered university during the COVID-19 pandemic navigated the intersection of past lived experiences and anticipated futures. Drawing on a qualitative study involving nine participants, young women and men, the research explores the ways in which they constructed intimate visual and verbal narratives of their normative and emotional transitions through the deliberate selection of personal objects. Central to the study was the creation of ‘identity boxes’, composed of personal and handcrafted items, serving as a medium for self-expression. Communication between the researcher and participants occurred asynchronously over several weeks via a social media platform, facilitating the exchange of invitations, photographs, and voice messages. The article offers insights into how the process of crafting a material artefact, combined with self-directed moments and spaces for reflection, elicited rich, nuanced, and vivid accounts of both lived and imagined experiences. In doing so, it contributes to a broader understanding of young people's reflexivity as they navigate the ongoing transitions of youth.