A site I was hesitant to join at first,
A place where people share their opinions, emotions,
And little pieces of their mind.

Writing was something I never thought I could accomplish.
But in the Young Writers Project,
I found myself writing not just for me,
But for people who feel the same way I do.

A girl who once thought writing was hard,
Who felt it was more of a chore than a passion.
Yet YWP gave me courage
And peace of mind.

It’s a place where writers grow,
Where inspiration finds you
Even when you don’t know what to write.

Australia’s social media ban for people under sixteen is a gigantic leap forward for societal well-being. Social medias like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok are detrimental to the mental health of the user, and they’re designed that way. Because of the ban, young kids and teenagers will have to find something else to do besides sitting around, entranced in a world of perfection and hyperconsumerism. I know that at least personally, Instagram does not benefit me in any way human interaction couldn’t.

Social media is made to frack us and extract our attention so that the extremely wealthy and elite can make more money. They cannot possibly need that much money. There aren’t any barriers for the corporations affected either; they already know exactly who minors are, so banning most of them shouldn’t be difficult.

The rest of the world should also enact similar laws for their children, partly so they can grow up actually talking to people, and partly so they don’t become a product at age eight. Australia has made a monumental decision for their next generation, and everyone else should too.

Small child, big Sandbox 

The bench tied to the big dog 

Big kids digging a hole to China 

Little cousins drinking from the sprinkler 

Pigeons and Squirrels and big birds that don’t look like Pigeons that eat the Pigeons and Squirrels 

Soft feet, hard gravel 

Paw Patrol Band-Aids and Paw Patrol fruit snacks  

Jumping off the fireman pole into the sandbox because they can fly 

Raincloud, muddy knee, small child, big sandbox 

I walk home wearing twin braids with bows

and a big smile because I'm wishing for snow.

Snow like a blanket, thick and white,

I want it to fall all through the night -

to cover the roads and the trees and the hills,

sparkling with winter's original thrill.

To settle over the houses breathing wisps of smoke

like a painter covering canvases in just one stroke,

to whisper a greeting to birches all gray

and tumble down onto the children at play.

Three inches at least I must hope for,

enough to come up and knock on my door

with a wish for a perfect snow-covered ground

and for the mighty old snowplow to not come around.

And when the sun emerges from her curtain of dawn

our superintendent will let out a yawn

and when she sees all the white gathered out on the sill

she'll call it a snow day, or at least I hope she will.

One of the biggest debates in today's world is whether phones have a positive or negative impact on everyday life. As technology keeps advancing, so does the world's concern, but also excitement. Focusing on smartphones, many people have begun to learn they can be a very powerful tool while also having increased negative properties. The real answer is unclear; most educators believe smartphones are a distraction and only that. Though others believe they are a true source of great information, opportunities, and ideas. 

On the positive side, smartphones give students the immediate ability to research and access information. Though they have been said to create substantial distraction, it still helps students grow independent learning. Phones keep people organized through reminders, note-taking, and planning. They have become a big part in everyday life. The human brain is not perfect, though with a phone students can increase memory through calendars and scheduling. According to Cross River Therapy, humans forget about 50% of the information recently learned in the span of an hour. With smartphones, this percentage decreases. Most phones come with a built-in calendar which makes remembering dates and schedules much easier, especially on top of the increased stress in schools. Outside of academics, phones are a quick and reliable way for kids to reach parents during emergencies. Thus, phones ensure the safety of students by also giving them access to emergency services by simply dialing three numbers. 
 

However, the disadvantages and problems concerning smartphones cannot be neglected. As commonly expressed, smartphones are a huge distraction to education. From the pinging of notifications to the continuous texting, students tend to ignore their surroundings and struggle to focus back on learning after once being interrupted by these phones. Social media platforms such as TikTok and Snapchat create false visuals and expectations of physical appearance. This is a widely known problem in mental health today. Students have constant access to modified images and built stereotypes that are causing kids to feel self-conscious. This triggers anxiety and also opens cyberbullying into the mix. The Cyberbullying Research Center states, "Approximately 58% of the students in our 2025 sample reported that they experienced cyberbullying." This also creates even more pressure for students to look a certain way. People become harsher online because they're hiding behind a screen and the bully cannot see the person's reaction; they tend to underestimate the intensity of the situation and ignore how deep words can cut. Therefore, phones can both create a distraction and increase mental health issues.

So, what does this mean? Well, there is no right or wrong answer, and also no true solution. The debate about banning smartphones is widely opinion-based and ongoing. Schools may report better with phones being removed during school hours, or others may need different policies. What remains clear is that smartphones can become distractions and social pressure, while also being quite beneficial to academics and organization. Thus, the views and truth in this big debate are extremely complex, and finding a balance may become a very important key to shaping the future.

Tears slipped quietly 

Down her face, hair 

Messily tied back into 

The lowest of low ponytails, and 

Perfectly manicured nails just begun 

To be chewed upon clutched 

A sparkling phone case; 

The glittery stars seemed 

Too bright in her tired eyes fading 

Like real stars, non- 

Artificial, would as 

The day brightened;

Perhaps her eyes were

Just the same

As those stars;

She looked so tired, so sad, but

It was all I could do to think

She looks so pretty

Like that, like

Any moment she’ll fall from

The plastic case she’s

Painted around herself;

Perhaps me seeing that was

What was so scary for her, why

The walls falling away felt like

They were caving in, but

Maybe there was also a part of her that

Needed it, to

Have the survivor of herself be seen with

Each quiet flare of a tear, and

To have someone know there was

Someone still there, someone

Who would succeed the her she

Tried so hard to be;

I rested my hand atop

The crumbling yet

Neatly skin-cared back of hers and

Gave her a little smile.

You look so pretty, and

Can I sit with you?

I would like to thank OverTheRainbow because while they had nothing really to do with this poem, I feel like they inspired me to write it in the voice and style I did.  Your writing is so incredible, and I'm so grateful I get to read it!

1.

There was this game about a skate park. I think there was also one about a BMX course, but the one that I haunt is the skate park.

The game was called Touchgrind Skate 2. You might remember it; it was kind of popular fourteen years ago, but I played it in the afterglow when I was nine or ten. You'd pilot a little skateboard around a skate park. I haven't looked at the game in about eight years. But I can picture the park perfectly.

There was a bowl covered in moss and dirt, with a bent and rusted beam leading down into it. A couple of wispy pixel trees stood in sad patches of grass, surrounded by dirty concrete. Near them, wooden skate ramps stood creaky and disheveled.

At the far end of the park, there was a parking garage lit by dim, warm lights. You could skate over the cars if you wanted; they were already broken and dented from years of the same treatment.

You had a Polaroid camera so that you could easily take pictures of no one.

2. 

I played Touchgrind Skate 2 on my dad's iPhone. If I got bored at a restaurant, I'd ask to play Skate and then hide away in the dusty light of that perpetual digital afternoon. I'd lie in the middle of the bowl and soak the sunlight into my skin. Then the food would come, and I'd put the phone away.

Being totally empty save for the player, the skate park couldn't be fun forever. When I'd rolled over every car and photographed every nook and cranny of the park, I drifted away. My skateboard sat upturned in the bowl, waiting for me in the ones and zeros like a good mechanical dog.

Social media was a new and exciting fad back then; Facebook accounts were intriguing, mystical things that big kids and parents had. Twitter and YouTube were skate parks in their own right, except they were crawling with other people to skate with. People would teach you new tricks, or people would laugh at you when you fell. I wasn't quite sure how it worked.

Last summer, long after I had abandoned the skate park, my cell phone was rendered useless after I went swimming with it in my pocket. I thought it would be no big deal.

But that night, as I lay in bed with nothing to distract me, I realized that for the first time in about half a decade, I was alone. I found myself drifting off to that skate park and settling in with the weeds.

3.

I actually lied to you before. I can't picture the skate park perfectly. When I googled pictures of the game to double-check, I was surprised to find images of a bright, sterile bowl with a glimmering beam leaning into it. The wooden ramps and parking garage (with perfectly intact cars) were both totally separate maps. The trees were picture-perfect. It was just my mind decaying it.

The skate park was never real enough to age. I never actually lay in it or pressed the button on the Polaroid camera. That was only neurons firing in my brain, fighting against the fact that it wasn't real and never could be real.

What will other spaces look like when nobody uses them? Will trees sprout out of piles of deleted Snapchat messages? Will animals burrow in the little plus-sign post buttons after nobody uses them?

Or will they just stay the same?

i still search for you in the places i go

hoping to see you; a familiar face once again.

today i walked through the halls expecting to meet you, where you forever stood— but the man i saw wasn’t you;

instead a past image of the person i once knew.

and if i could i would walk to the end of the earth to find you again.

and we will sit like past versions of us once did, under the sky— watching as the morning breaks ahead.

nothing in my mind except for you,

shining times so long ago.

i truly miss you old friend.