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YCM Story of the Week

  • Book Review: Spilling the Greasy Beans on Demon Copperhead

    What Barbara Kingsolver’s novel gets right about the opioid and foster care crisis in Appalachia

    by Jessica Miller

    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. 

Recent Stories

  • How Gentrification Has Affected Me

    by Enoch Naklen

    I’ve watched the construction of 111 Montgomery in my Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights since it was nothing more than a large empty lot.  There was a playground nearby where my brother and I always played competitive 2v2s basketball with the neighborhood kids.

  • Gaining Confidence and Control

    by Anonymous

    Names have been changed. In 7th grade, I was bullied by a few of my female classmates. They made fun of me for being a hijabi (meaning I wore a headscarf) and said I was ugly. I had social anxiety. They talked about me behind my back and made fun of me to my face.

  • Finding and Trusting the Right Therapist

    by E.O.

    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.

  • Writing 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.

YC Magazine publishes true stories by teens, giving readers insight into the issues that matter most in young people’s lives.

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Video: Stories That Transform

Watch how educators use our stories to support the well-being of students

Represent Magazine

Stories by Teens in Foster Care

Adjusting to My Adoptive Family

Patience and communication were what I needed from my new family.

by George Romero

When I was first adopted out of foster care at age 6, everyone in my new family was sweet to me. It seemed like there was a lot of love. In addition to my two adoptive parents, I had six new siblings.

Youth-written stories in Represent give inspiration and information to teens in foster care while offering insight into those teens’ struggles.

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More Recent YC Magazine Stories

  • ​​​Arriving, Finally, As My Chosen Name  

    by Spencer Katz

    I had recently cut my hair short for the first time. At school, a male friend saw me and said, “You look like a boy,” and it felt validating, especially coming from a boy. Then, it started to click that maybe I wasn’t the girl I thought I was. 

  • What We Can Do to Honor the Loss of Tyre Nichols 

    by Enoch Naklen

    On January 7th, Tyre Nichols was pulled over by five Memphis police officers for “reckless driving” according to NBC News. What followed was 13 minutes of him being brutally beaten and tased by these police officers. He died in the hospital three days later.  

  • My Case for Examining Existing Stalking Laws

    by Luca Bernstein

    One day, I was sitting outside with my mom and her friends at a coffee shop when a 50-something looking man who looked like The Dude from The Big Lebowski complimented me on my bicycle and asked if he could take a picture.

Express yourself, get published, win $

Youth Writing Contest

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