Igniting the ability to care, critique and act upon issues of injustice and inequality is key to understanding citizenship, yet a focus on what might spark, or mobilise citizenship imaginations and lead to informed action has not been a significant feature of citizenship scholarship. Drawing on a bricolage of theoretical ideas derived from C. Wright Mills, Paulo Freire and critical feminist theory, we propose a framework of three dimensions (caring, critiquing and taking action) to help explain how citizen's imaginations about society may be cultivated. Drawing on a qualitative study with 40 young Singaporeans aged 17-25, the study illustrates how young people's embodied, relational and lived experiences quickened their citizenship imaginations and led them to imagine and act to create more inclusive and empathetic worlds. Paying closer attention to citizenship imaginations may help to explain the 'why' of citizenship participation and provide deeper understanding about how citizenship action is sustained.