Submit Your Work

Writing helps me process my life and the world around me. It makes me take something chaotic and make some sense of it all. And, I’m proving to myself that I have valuable thoughts. Maybe others can benefit from them too.”

NADIA BARNARD, Youth Be Heard writer

• Submission is open year-round and is eligible for youth between the ages of 13 and 24.
• After submission, you will hear back from a member of the YBH team within one month.
• While YBH cannot guarantee that a submission will be published, we do our best to offer kind and constructive feedback for all written work so you can continue to improve your writing.
• If your work is selected for publication on youthbeheard.org, a dedicated editor will work with you to make final adjustments and polish it. Note that it is common to receive a lot of feedback – do not get discouraged! We put effort into every piece to prepare for publication.

Writing

We accept all forms of writing, including opinion, exposition, poetry, short stories, song lyrics,  and more. We do not currently accept long-form writing (such as a full script for a play or books). 

Art

We accept the following forms of art: video, music, monologue, lyrics, drawings, paintings,  sculptures, photography, and most definitely doodles. Make sure all your submissions have been scanned with the right crop or photographed head-on with sufficient lighting.  

Guidelines

We’re honored to be a platform for young voices and creative expression. Our mission is to provide a safe, welcoming space for youth to share their writing and art with a broad audience.

To help maintain this supportive environment, we generally do not publish submissions that include explicit content. While we deeply respect the importance of these topics and the personal experiences behind them, we aim to keep our content accessible and appropriate for a wide range of readers.

Additionally, to maintain creative expression, we do not allow submissions developed with artificial intelligence, including Chat GPT. We may use AI detection software or personal judgement and will send you a follow-up email to discuss if we believe your submission may have been developed with artificial intelligence.

If you’re ever unsure whether your piece fits within our guidelines, please feel free to reach out—we’re always happy to have a conversation.

Ready to share your work? Click below!

Check out our page: How to Write for Youth Be Heard for more information.

Need writing ideas? Check out our guide: prompts and inspiration for the growing writer! 

Questions? Email info@youthbeheard.org