Contests

We invited teenagers to create an original five-minute podcast about almost anything. Here are the finalists selected from over 1,100 submissions.

To participate, submit your response here by July 5 at 9 a.m. Eastern. This week’s winners will be announced by July 17.

Read the work of the winning writer, Daphne Nguyen, 16 — and take a look at three favorite video responses, too.

To participate, submit your response here by June 28 at 9 a.m. Eastern. This week’s winners will be announced by July 10.

To participate, submit your response here by June 21 at 9 a.m. Eastern. This week’s winners will be announced by July 3.

A glimpse into nine close-knit and compelling communities, as documented by teenagers.

Chloe Moon Flaherty, age 18, documents a community that “embraces the unconventional.”

To participate, submit your response here by June 14 at 9 a.m. Eastern. This week’s winners will be announced by June 26.

A winning essay by Shannon Hong, age 16.

A winning essay by Raniya Chowdhury, age 17.

A winning essay by Sofia Fontenot, age 18.

A winning essay by Zoe Brown, age 14.

A winning essay by Hanyi Zhou, age 14.

A winning essay by Jackson DeNichilo, age 15.

A winning essay by Jacob Wang, age 16.

A winning essay by Matthew Jeong, age 17.

A winning essay by Ashley Zhang, age 14.

A winning essay by Chelsea Hu, age 18.

A winning essay by Camille Gonzales, age 18.

Over 2,200 teenagers submitted essays on how to do everything from fix a toilet to fight a kangaroo. We’ll be publishing the work of the winners all week.

We invite students to create an original podcast of five minutes or less that informs or entertains. Contest dates: April 17 to May 15.

Six steps to help you understand the format and write a powerful open letter of your own — with help from Times texts along the way.

We invite students to write public-facing letters to people or groups about issues that matter to them. Contest dates: March 13 to May 1.

A politician or a celebrity? A leader of a company? A school administrator? Your mom? Use our questions below to brainstorm ideas for our contest.

We challenged teenagers to respond to the Times piece of their choice by creating a visual guide to what they learned. Here are our favorites.

We invite students to create a short video that defines or teaches one of our recent Words of the Day. Contest dates: Feb. 28-March 27, 2024.

Step-by-step directions for depicting what’s memorable and meaningful about groups and the places where they gather.

Using an immersive Times series as inspiration, we invite teenagers to document the local communities that interest them. Contest dates: Feb. 14 to March 20.

Read critical commentary by teenagers on Olivia Rodrigo, “Succession,” a state flag, a trendy pink tumbler and more.

We invited teenagers to write miniature memoirs about meaningful moments in their lives. Read the 15 winning stories.

As a companion to our new “how to” contest, here are 10 questions to help you brainstorm some skills you’d like to learn — whether practical or just for fun.

We walk you through how to brainstorm a topic, interview an expert and write your own original “How to ….”

We invite students to explain how to do any task in 400 words or fewer. Contest dates: Jan. 10 - Feb. 14, 2024

Via essays, poems, videos, photos, a graph, a GIF and a diorama, 25 students and teachers across the globe reflect on their lives in school.

Show us your thinking about a recent Times article, video, graph, photo essay or podcast. Open from Dec. 6, 2023 to Jan. 10, 2024.

We’ll walk you through the process with advice from New York Times critics and student writers.

We invite students to play critic and submit an original review about a recent creative work. Contest runs from Nov. 1 to Dec. 6.

From Oct. 4 to Nov. 1, we invite teenagers to tell a true story about a meaningful life experience in just 100 words.

As our contest comes to a close, we honor Ruby Nguyen, 18, and hear from some of our New York Times judges about what it was like to read responses from teenagers around the world.

Ming-Li Sabina Wolfe, 16, writes about how the music of Astrud Gilberto, who died in June, has connected her family through the generations.

Five practical steps for deciding what you most want to express, and experimenting with how to express it.

What can you show or tell us to help explain what it’s like to be an educator or student in secondary school right now? Submit in words, images, audio or video, from Aug. 16-Oct. 4.

Jolie, a young woman with Tourette’s syndrome, writes about her reaction to the article, “How Teens Recovered From the ‘TikTok Tics’.”

To participate, submit your response here by Aug. 18 at 9 a.m. Eastern. This week’s winners will be announced on Aug. 29.

Aaron Kim, 16, writes about what happened when he put advice from a Well article about staycations to the test.

To participate, submit your response here by Aug. 11 at 9 a.m. Eastern. This week’s winners will be announced on Aug. 22.

Nathaniel Tok, 16, writes about his love of Marvel movies — and how we, the audience, should support the writers and actors who are striking.

To participate, submit your response here by Aug. 4 at 9 a.m. Eastern. This week’s winners will be announced on Aug. 15.

Yugottam Koirala, 18, a student from Nepal, writes about what Himalayan glacier loss could mean for his country.

To participate, submit your response here by July 28 at 9 a.m. Eastern. This week’s winners will be announced on Aug. 8.

Smrithi Senthilnathan responds to a guest essay about the Supreme Court’s rejection of race-conscious admissions programs.

To participate, submit your response here by July 21 at 9 a.m. Eastern. This week’s winners will be announced on Aug. 1.

E., 16, chose a piece from T Magazine about the power of writers like Audre Lorde, Leslie Feinberg and James Baldwin.

To participate, submit your response here by July 14 at 9 a.m. Eastern. This week’s winners will be announced on July 25.

An oral history of Woodstock, an investigation into the origins of the fork, and an answer to the question of what makes a tune memorable. Listen to this year’s winning entries.

Jack Cole, 16, reflects on his 648 days of playing the popular New York Times game.

To participate, submit your response here by July 7 at 9 a.m. Eastern. This week’s winners will be announced on July 18.

Handwriting, microplastics, sportswashing and phone phobia. Teenagers tackle these issues and more in these 12 runners-up essays.

We are honoring the Top 11 winners of our Student Editorial Contest by publishing their essays. This one is by Sylvia Woodbury, age 19.

We are honoring the Top 11 winners of our Student Editorial Contest by publishing their essays. This one is by Leah N. Scarpa, age 17.

Katie Chung, 17, chose an article from the Style section about a TikTok trend that she thinks has broader implications.

We are honoring the Top 11 winners of our Student Editorial Contest by publishing their essays. This one is by Megan Ray, age 16.

We are honoring the Top 11 winners of our Student Editorial Contest by publishing their essays. This one is by Joshua Martoma, age 17.

We are honoring the Top 11 winners of our Student Editorial Contest by publishing their essays. This one is by Megan Luong, age 17.

We are honoring the Top 11 winners of our Student Editorial Contest by publishing their essays. This one is by Callisto Lim, age 16.

We are honoring the Top 11 winners of our Student Editorial Contest by publishing their essays. This one is by Kelley Kwok, age 16.

We are honoring the Top 11 winners of our Student Editorial Contest by publishing their essays. This one is by Megha Khemka, age 17.

To participate, submit your response here by June 30 at 9 a.m. Eastern. This week’s winners will be announced on July 11.

We are honoring the Top 11 winners of our Student Editorial Contest by publishing their essays. This one is by Gabriel Huang, age 17.

We are honoring the Top 11 winners of our Student Editorial Contest by publishing their essays. This one is by Chantal de Macedo Eulenstein, age 16.

We are honoring the Top 11 winners of our Student Editorial Contest by publishing their essays. This one is by Cindy Chen, age 13.

This year’s winning essays — chosen from more than 12,000 entries — take on student journalism, artificial intelligence, fan fiction and more.

To participate, submit your response here by June 23 at 9 a.m. Eastern. This week’s winners will be announced on July 5.

To participate, submit your response here by June 16 at 9 a.m. Eastern. This week’s winners will be announced on June 27.

Thank you to the more than 1,300 students who participated this year. Check out the winning videos to learn 11 new words.

Middle and high school students are invited to tell us what they’re reading in The Times and why. The contest runs from June 9 to Aug. 18.

We are honoring the top 10 winners of our Student STEM Writing Contest by publishing their essays. This one is by Yejin (Jenny) Son.

We are honoring the top 10 winners of our Student STEM Writing Contest by publishing their essays. This one is by Siwen Cui.

We are honoring the top 10 winners of our Student STEM Writing Contest by publishing their essays. This one is by Logan Ramanathan.

We are honoring the top 10 winners of our Student STEM Writing Contest by publishing their essays. This one is by Leah Li.

We are honoring the top 10 winners of our Student STEM Writing Contest by publishing their essays. This one is by Justin Wang.

We are honoring the top 10 winners of our Student STEM Writing Contest by publishing their essays. This one is by Judah Spiegel.

We are honoring the top 10 winners of our Student STEM Writing Contest by publishing their essays. This one is by Erica Frischauf.

We are honoring the top 10 winners of our Student STEM Writing Contest by publishing their essays. This one is by Daphne Zhu.

We are honoring the top 10 winners of our Student STEM Writing Contest by publishing their essays. This one is by Catherine Ji.

We are honoring the top 10 winners of our Student STEM Writing Contest by publishing their essays. This one is by Andrei Li.

Students explain concepts from the world of science, technology, engineering and math.

The teenage winner of our Invent a Word challenge suggests a word for distinguishing between human- and machine-generated responses in the era of chatbots.

We invite students to create an original podcast of five minutes or less that informs or entertains. This contest runs from April 19 to May 17.

We invited students to suggest words to fill gaps in the English language. Here are our favorites.