Ready, Set, Go!

There’s often a lot of talk about needing to give young people a voice, but eight years ago - when I was 16 - I already had a voice. I had lots of ideas and opinions to share. My frustration was with how difficult it was to get people to take them seriously. Even though I was lucky and had great teachers and supportive adults around me, I didn’t feel like these ideas were really heard. I needed a platform to help me, and I figured others did too. So, I started WriteUnite.

I wanted to give young people an opportunity to talk about their ideas, thoughts and opinions and share these far and wide. I wrote to schools all over the world, asking them to help their students be part of a book, and literally hundreds of submissions from young people came back.

From that point on, I knew I wasn’t on my own and that other young people also wanted to be listened to. We had students in countries from Kenya and Iceland to China and Canada send in submissions detailing their ‘Perfect World’, giving all of us a glimpse into my generation’s dreams – it was amazing to see all these voices coming together. I also knew that I had to work out how to publish a book!

WriteUnite has now published two books with submissions from over 2000 young people in 22 countries on every continent. The opinions of young people are being read by people of all ages, everywhere.

After a break to catch my breath, ponder what comes next, and get some more people involved - we’re back with our third project all about Visions of the Future. We’re now open for submissions!

We want young people to tell us their hopes, dreams and ambitions for the future. 2020 has been a whirlwind for everyone and, as our world changes, it feels hugely important that young people have a platform to share their opinions about what the future should hold. After all, they will be the ones leading it. By bringing young people’s opinions together in one place, their voices are amplified, and we’ve got big ideas for making sure more people than ever read what we publish.

Every young person is welcome. We’re not a writing competition, we’re not a place to be the best or the loudest, we’re a place where every young person who comes to us can have their opinion published and heard. Everybody counts.

If this sounds interesting, then our new website has all the information you need to get involved! And we’ve got lots of new ways to support the project, which we will tell you about as we go.

We can’t wait to see submissions and to show everyone that young people have the ideas and the power to inspire and change the world.