Must Reads: Teens running for governor, Puerto Ricans fleeing from ruin, and Iranian women shedding their

Compelling, ambitious reads you can’t afford to miss.

v

Monica Hesse has always found teenagers compelling. "They're at such a critical point in their lives," said Hesse, a Style reporter who also writes acclaimed novels for young adults. "You get this earnestness and openness. It's the age you become who you really are." So when she learned that six teenaged boys are running for governor of Kansas — a state with no minimum age requirement for its highest office — she flew there to chronicle the campaigns of candidates too young to vote for themselves. Hesse, who came to The Post as an intern more than 10 years ago, quickly chose 17-year-old Tyler Ruzich as her main character. A debate team captain with a poster of the U.S. Constitution hanging in his bedroom, Tyler was juggling his classes, campaign and shifts bagging groceries at the HyVee. Though lots of stories had poked fun at him and the other aspiring boy governors, Hesse described him as a "seriously impressive kid." And while she was reporting her piece, Hesse said, the horrific school shooting at Majory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida changed the way he was being treated by the media. "All of a sudden people started asking him more serious questions," Hesse said. And Tyler was ready to answer them. — Lynda Robinson, Local Enterprise Editor Six teenagers are running for governor in Kansas, and suddenly this doesn’t seem so preposterous In Parkland, kids are lobbying the government. These boys want to be the government. Monica Hesse  •   Read more » Exodus from Puerto Rico grows as island struggles to rebound from Hurricane Maria Experts estimate hundreds of thousands of people will leave by the end of 2018 amid lingering effects. Arelis R. Hernández  •   Read more » Inside an accused school shooter’s mind: A plot to kill ‘50 or 60. If I get lucky maybe 150.’ As a teen allegedly slaughtered 17 people at a high school in Florida, a judge was deciding whether another accused school shooter in South Carolina should be tried as an adult. John Woodrow Cox  •   Read more » Trump says American workers are hurt by immigration. But after ICE raided this Texas town, they never showed up. Despite growing wages, few Americans sign up for grueling jobs at a meatpacking plant. Nick Miroff  •   Read more » Women in Iran are pulling off their headscarves — and hoping for a ‘turning point’ Dozens have staged individual protests against the mandatory veil, risking arrest for removing them in public squares. Erin Cunningham  •   Read more »