Winners

We invited teenagers to write miniature memoirs about meaningful moments in their lives. Read the 13 winning stories.

“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,…

Victor Xu, age 14, The Crescent School, Toronto: “Our Educational System Should Better Serve Introverted Students”Sanjana Yasna, age 16, Stuyvesant High School, New York, N.Y.: “Let’s End the Period of Shame”Sarah Yee, age 15, Granite Bay High School, Granite Bay, Calif.: “Open Your Eyes to See Mine Are Not Your Trend”Hanna Zhao, age 14, John…

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…

“Dress Codes: Cover Up” by Delaney Church, 18, New Tech Academy at Wayne High School, Fort Wayne, Ind.“Exploding Facts — Eggs!” by Mia Tweel, 11, Luria Academy, Brooklyn, N.Y.“Gentrification = wack” by Anissa Adams, 17, Cerritos High School, Cerritos, Calif.“The Great Footsteps I Walk In” by Nikhil Damji, 14, Lakeside School, Seattle, Wash.“Hearing Loss and…

That day, a boy told me he liked my hair.I immediately understood this boy to be The One. He flirted with me more than he flirted with other girls, and sometimes even looked at me while I spoke. I wrote him love letters in the form of homework questions that could easily have been answered…

“The Dangers of the Internet for Two Teenage Girls” by Sanaz Zaman, 13, and Hong Yeju, 13, UCSI International School, Selangor, Malaysia“The Fear of Missing Out, That’s Me” by Aram Kim, 13, Surbiton High School, Surrey, England“Pets the New Cool” by Ananyaa Sultania, 12, and Shaurya Sultania, 10, Eager Readers, Hyderabad, India“Should Children Be Separated…

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…

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,…

Contrary to the message of history never fading, Bodiam Castle might seem run-down to a modern-day civilian. Of course, apart from the moss and ruins, the windows dotted around the periphery seem more inviting to intruders than defensive, which makes one wonder why they’re placed the way they are. The moss-laden walls make the castle…