[Y]oung Writers Project, an independent nonprofit based in Burlington, engages young people to write and use digital media to express themselves with clarity and power, and to gain confidence and skills for school, the workplace and life.
Check out the most recent issue of The Voice, Young Writers Project’s monthly digital magazine. Click here.
Each week, VTDigger features a writing submission – an essay, poem, fiction or nonfiction – accompanied by a photo or illustration from Young Writers Project.
YWP publishes about 1,000 students’ work each year here, in newspapers across Vermont, on Vermont Public Radio and in YWP’s monthly digital magazine, The Voice. Since 2006, it has offered young people a place to write, share their photos, art, audio and video, and to explore and connect online at youngwritersproject.org. For more information, please contact Susan Reid at sreid@youngwritersproject.org.
“Be yourself,” we grow up hearing – and yet when it comes to a school hallway setting, that’s easier said than done. This week’s Charlotte writer Annika Gruber offers her observations of her peers, noting the unhappiness of those attempting to conform to particular roles; she notices, too, the genuine cheer of an outcast student who has come to accept her personal quirks.
Wondering Why
By Annika Gruber, 14
[I] see the girl with the long brown hair walk down the halls, with a permanent smile plastered on her face. It looks natural, but I know that it isn’t – it’s forced. She’s pretending to be someone she’s not so that people will like her more.
I wonder why.
I see the boy with the jet-black hair bouncing a basketball down the hallway. He’s a good dribbler, but I know he doesn’t really like sports – he likes science. He pretends not to though, so that he might get noticed more.
I wonder why.
I see the girl with the tinted glasses skipping and twirling down the hallway. Most people give her a strange look as she passes by. I smile at her and she smiles back. It’s not a fake smile. She’s happy and at ease, not trying to hide anything about her vibrant personality.
Everyone else must wonder why.