Today's modern landscape of leaders fails to accurately represent societal diversity. This inequity, as in all inequities, is not accidental, but instead the results of socially constructed norms that begin in childhood. In this dissertation, I question how internalized norms of white supremacy and patriarchy perpetuate racial and gender aligned forms of leadership that have kept marginalized groups out of decision-making spaces. By leveraging social constructivism, teacher expectancy, and feminist and queer theories, I present a conceptual framework that argues youth leadership is not innate but rather intentionally created. Using sequential exploratory mixed methods, I facilitated 12 interviews and 81 surveys across elementary, middle, and high school to gather vernacular and understand how leadership, as defined by the youth themselves, is self-ascribed. Additionally, I looked at how youth perceived their teachers desiring or not desiring these same traits. Contrary to expectations my research found that leadership was not entirely dictated by an individual's race, gender, or developmental level. Rather leadership was seen as an ever-evolving attribute highly dependent on external influence, specifically teachers. Youth also defined leadership as collaboration rather than dictation. Most significantly, this research led to a new hypothesis that positionality, a previously overlooked element of leadership development, was in fact the most salient decider of how leaders came to be. Ultimately, the confluence of identity and positionality as mediated by social ideologies comes to shape the performance and self-ascription of leadership. This research presents a theory that positionality is not just a determinant of leadership but can be leveraged as a method for adjusting the landscape of who leads and how they lead. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]