The Road to Acceptance at 16.5
It’s an early summer day in June, the last day of finals. There’s a funny sort of feeling, when school ends. You stare out the window in class, glimpsing the beautiful promise of the outdoors, inhaling that sweet smell of possibility. After leaving on the last day, I was driving around with my older sister, […]
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Book Review: Spilling the Greasy Beans on Demon Copperhead
Barbara Kingsolver dedicates her novel Demon Copperhead to survivors of the opioid crisis and foster care. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the book is dedicated to someone like me: I am an Appalachian who was put in foster care due, in part, to my father’s opioid addiction. Reading the novel, I felt […]
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Finding and Trusting the Right Therapist
Names have been changed. My father sexually abused me as a child and, a few days shy of my 13th birthday, I entered foster care. When detectives were first assigned to my case, I had to explain the what, when, where, who, and how of the assaults over and over. I felt like I was […]
Read MoreWriting Contest Winners Spring 2023
Four times a year, we ask our readers to write about the impact recent stories have had on teens around the country. In spring 2023, we had a range of responses from writers connecting to stories about family, addiction, generational trauma, and finding one’s voice. Congratulations to our winners and be sure to apply for our […]
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