Winners

One of the top three winners of our middle school contest: cartographer by Soobin Lee. This is the first year we have been experimenting with offering our contests, which have long been open to students 13 years old and up, to younger students. And so far, we have not been disappointed with the results.Last month,…

Willet Cole, 13, Sussex Academy, Georgetown, Del.: “Five Nights at Freddy’s FLOP”Yuki Wen, 15, Bishop Strachan School, Toronto: “The iPhone 15: Who Needs Innovation When You Can Have Déjà Vu?”Zackary Kozak, 18, American Heritage Schools, Palm Beach Campus, Delray Beach, Fla.:“‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’: Sharing the Wealth of Words”Zijing Xin, 16, Shanghai Pinghe…

Vaishnavi Kothamasu, 14, Hillcrest High School, Midvale, Utah: “One More Word”Veronica Zhu, 16, Seven Lakes High School, Katy, Texas: “Language Barrier”Victoria Day, 14, Polytechnic School, Pasadena, Calif.: “Our Camellia”Violet Zimmerle, 15, Fred J. Page High School, Franklin, Tenn.: “No More Balloons”Ye Won Paek, 17, Plymouth High School, Canton, Mich.: “From Japchae to Jelly”Yuna Onishi, 14,…

Read critical commentary by teenagers on a high school cafeteria, Breath of the Wild, Balenciaga’s new line and more.

Runners-UpAlyse Wicentowski, “Heart”Angel Zhao and Fiona Xing, “teenage homage”Bobby Goldyn, 14, “Lost Voices”Cassie Garrett, 14, “Kindness in the Pandemic”Dorothy Du, 16, “The Sound of Rain”Eliana Robin, 15, “Warning: The World is Crumbling”Eveleen Jiang, 17, “Out of Touch”Hailey Jones, 15, “Growing Up in 2021”Hiewon Ahn, “A Cutlery Awakening”Ilona Lebron, 18, “Painting Something New”James Kim, 17, “Life…

Wake up. Go to school. Learn. Do extracurriculars. Go back home. Do homework. Sleep. Repeat. And look good for college. While her peers applied to college last year, Johnna was sworn in by the U.S. Army and supported by her family, her teachers and her friends. From a young age, we’re told to go to…

“If You Destroy the Root, You Kill the Whole Plant” by Isaac Abraham, 16, The Hun School of Princeton, Princeton, N.J.“Inside Interviews” by Grace Chaille, 16, Canterbury High School, Fort Wayne, Ind.“Intersectionationalism: The Dual Dehumanization of Queer Refugees” by Rhys Adams, 16, Milton Academy, Milton, Mass.“Jack Martin” by Jack Martin, 15, Neenah High School, Neenah,…

All summer long teenagers told us about the Times articles, Opinion pieces, videos, photos and podcasts that got their attention, and all summer long we celebrated our favorite responses. We heard, of course, about the big headlines of the summer, like the Women’s World Cup, the protests in Hong Kong, the migrant detention centers, and…

One of the top ten winners of our high school contest: vex by Steven Xie, Elliot Azzi, Arek Zenel Walasek and Korinne Hennel. The world is a scary place right now. Let us offer you a break from it with these delightful 15-second videos created by teenagers.In January, we challenged students to define one of…

“The Honest Confessions of a Seventeen Year Old Girl” by Becky Zhong, 17, Shanghai American School, Puxi, Shanghai“Is Social Security Really Enough?” by Fabio Oh, 18, Cerritos High School, Cerritos, Calif.“Look in a Book,” Rebekah Poteet, 17, Cleburne High School, Cleburne, Texas“Moments of Happiness” by Flor “The Oberheim and Its Legacy” by Jacob Atkins, 19,…