Writing contest winners winter 2023
Four times a year, we ask our readers to write about the impact recent stories have had on teens around the country. In Winter 2022-23, we had a range of responses from writers connecting to stories about family, race, online culture, self image, and the importance of a name. Congratulations to our winners and be […]
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How My Aunt Became My Mother
My parents argued as I ran from room to room, entertaining myself. I was 6, my brother was 3 and we were living in South Korea. After each lap around the small apartment, I paused and took a look at the woman giving me a tight smile. The smile seemed genuine to me, and it […]
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My Burdens as an Adoptee
I was born in Kentucky and only had about three days with my birth mother before I was put into foster care. While nine months pregnant with me, she had been apprehended by the police and forcibly hospitalized because she was homeless and suffering a psychotic episode. Due to her schizoaffective disorder, she lost custody […]
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I Look, Therefore I Am?
Names have been changed. It was the day of my friend Amanda’s bat mitzvah. She was more of a recent friend, someone who, with my implicit permission, tended to degrade me on a daily basis. Nonetheless, I liked her, and at one of the final parties of the year-long bat mitzvah season, I wanted to […]
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