Weekly Challenges
Deadline
Through poetry, prose, or personal essay, write about the experience of being a teen. What challenges do you face day-to-day, and expect to face in the future? What do you wish to communicate with the world at large, if only it’d listen? [Photo by Alexis Brown on Unsplash]
she’s not made for this world
of cropped tops and cold shoulders
of high-pitched cruelty
and eyeliner wings sharp enough to kill
but she’d sell her soul
just to sit with them for five minutes
Hello
My name is Jaden
I am fifteen
And this is a poem
About me
About how I feel
Being a teenager
In 2025
Distance
Rain
Endless nights
With no end in sight
Your whole self is being developed,
everyday you learn something new,
you create your dreams into reality,
you can't wait to grow up,
yet you missed the good old times,
where you didn't have to
We're only kids
But we need to be
As mature as adults
We're little kids
It's not safe
But we're basically an adult
So we can have adult responsibilities
We can't stay up with friends
Perfection- it has taken over the lives of millions of teenagers.
Expectations of perfection from parents, teachers, guardians, random people you've never even met, classmates, friends, and even yourself.
Being a teenager in today's world is so hard.
You have to deal with: stress of school, social interactions, people telling you what to do and what not to do.
I feel lost
I feel afraid
What if I'm not good enough?
What if they don't like me?
What if they think I'm too weird?
What if they think I'm mean?
Being a teen is like standing at the very edge of a tall cliff. One wrong move and it all crumbles; one wrong dress, one wrong word, one wrong love and you're over.
To be a teen
Is to lose your sense of self
Completely.
What is right?
What is wrong?
What is cool?
Why do some feel so drawn to popularity
While others are repulsed by it?
I’m a little overgrown
But to this world I still am green
Neither fresh nor am I wisened
Somewhere deeply in between
Blood
Hands
I look around
How did I
Get here
No
How did we
Get here
To this place of
Rioting
Festering
Loathing
Hatred
When I was young
Can you remember
Who you were
Before the world told you
Who you should be?
__________________________
i was too much
for you
someday
I’ll be enough
For someone