Dillon St. Bernard on Building Black-Led Narrative Power Ahead of America's 250th

Every generation inherits a country. Few generations get the opportunity to rewrite their story. As America approaches its 250th anniversary, Dillon St. Bernard believes Gen Z has both the responsibility and the opportunity to do exactly that.

St. Bernard is the founder of Team DSB, a Gen Z-led creative agency, and the co-founder of Youth250, the only national campaign centering young people in the conversation around America’s 250th. He is also a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree who started as a content creator at 13 years old, long before he had language for what narrative strategy even was.

“I was always in love with the idea around telling stories,” he shared during The Quintessential Gentleman. “They really started with a real joy for amplifying other people’s humanity. And through that, I got to often say I got to find my own.”

That instinct, to find himself by telling other people’s stories, has carried through every chapter of his career. His first major professional moment came doing social media and content strategy for a national climate movement that brought over half a million people into the streets. It was, he said, the moment he understood what storytellers are actually for.

“That was my first kind of realization that the work of storytellers is instrumental to the work of social justice and social movements,” he said. “When we do storytelling correctly, when we leverage culture, that is really where we can kind of reimagine and tell new stories to new people. Where we can think about how we can change culture.”

It is a through line that connects directly to The Quintessential Gentleman’s own mission. “I really do believe,” he said, “and I think what y’all do, the publication that y’all run, The Quintessential Gentleman, I think is a perfect example around narrative and culture has a powerful way to get about the change we collectively seek.”

Team DSB is not just Gen Z-led. It is built with intention around identity, and St. Bernard does not soften that fact for anyone.

“All of my self shapes how we do the work,” he said, describing how he answers questions about diversity inside his own agency. “It is integrated into everything that we do. So all of my work, somehow, the theme is centering young and multicultural folks. Whether I’m doing civic engagement, climate and conservation work, or nature work, whether I’m doing education or workforce development, all of it is with this theme and focus. As I’m doing this work, I’m keeping in mind folks who look like me in it.”

That point of view shapes who he works with, and who he doesn’t. “If we’re not doing it for folks who look like me, like, why are we doing it?” he said. “As we were thinking about like clients we work with, partners we have, I’m like, this is who you are, and this is who you get. Now, if we’re not the right partner, there’s so many other white-led agencies right around the corner. I’m happy to refer you out. But let’s keep it going if you want to work with us and try something different.”

Running a Black-owned, purpose-driven agency through a volatile political landscape has not been simple, and St. Bernard is candid about what recent years have demanded. Funding pulled back, partners grew cautious, and communications work, he noted, is often the first budget line to disappear in moments of institutional fear.

“Last year was a tough year for us post-Trump,” he said. “I think we’re also seeing that that work is the first to go.” Rather than retreat, he diversified, building out political, nonprofit, and brand partnerships alongside a growing media ecosystem of shows and podcasts. His standard for the work has stayed simple throughout. “We all got to eat, but we also have to sleep at night,” he said. “I can sleep well knowing that we’ve chosen this type of work, which is often with organizations who, frankly, are super small or grassroots.”

As red, white, and blue branding for America’s 250th blankets the country, St. Bernard has spent years thinking about what the moment should actually mean for people the American story hasn’t always served. He sees it less as a celebration and more as an invitation to ask hard questions. “This has been just a journey of broken promises,” he said. “Can we reimagine more for ourselves? Can we have the ability to think about this moment kind of wider and imagine anew?”

That reimagining is the premise behind Youth250, which he co-founded with Made By Us to ensure young people help shape how the anniversary is told, not just attend it. “What we realize, and one reason we started U250, is that we kind of saw that young people’s voices were often put to the side,” he said. “Gen Z is part of the workforce now, like they are your colleagues and bosses and future bosses, like they’re very much part of the culture and they need to be part of the media and national conversations.”

For young Black people who feel disillusioned by the moment, St. Bernard doesn’t pretend otherwise. He understands the frustration, and he channels it into something specific. “I am very much of the mind of like, if you don’t see it, you create it,” he said. “What is your offering to the movement or the larger space? That’s often my question to folks.”

He’s equally deliberate about protecting his own peace while doing the work, a boundary he holds without apology. “I don’t have news notifications on,” he said. “I’m not coming to work being like, I’m going to put off my identity as a Black queer person off to the side. All of it is within me as I’m doing this work.”

Looking toward America’s 300th anniversary, St. Bernard envisions a country reshaped by community and culture rather than institutions alone. “I think the 300th mark of this country looks like people leaning even more into community,” he said. “At a certain point, we’re all media and culture creators.” For him, the work has never been about a single viral moment. It’s generational. “I think Millennials have kind of built the foundation that Gen Z can walk on,” he said, “and then Gen Alpha is just gonna fly and soar. It’s gonna take all of us.”

Check out the full interview below.