creativity

Story·Hannah Postel, age 12 — An actor playing Romeo navigates pre-show tension with her Juliet, finding reconciliation and deeper understanding of her character through performance.

Story·Bethany Johnsen, age 13 — Two cousins play an elaborate game of orphan sisters surviving in the jungle, transforming a suburban yard into a world of tigers and adventure.

Story·Mariel Dempster — A girl sent to an Italian convent school to stop her from painting secretly learns from an old man in the town plaza and ultimately convinces her mother to let...

Story·Brittany Newell, age 10 — A girl finds escape and identity through playing her dusty family piano, culminating in a Christmas Eve performance where she becomes one with the instrument.

Story·Emma Kilgore Hine, age 13 — A girl crafts a tiny boat from bark and wildflowers beside a New Mexican mountain stream, then releases it to drift away like a fairy ship.

Story·Christy Joy Frost, age 13 — A girl running her family's B&B feels isolated until an author guest shows her that her world contains many worlds, prompting her to reach out to a stranger.

Story·Gracie Shapiro, age 12 — A girl searches for her grandfather and together they engineer a tree swing using a bow and arrow to get the rope over a high branch.

Poetry·Anne Brandes, age 12 — A girl journeys through fields and past a mill to a windowsill where, with pencil and paper, she begins to write as if the page were a ballroom.

Story·Maisie Bilston, age 11 — An English girl grieving her father's death moves to Germany and creates a magical world in the apartment building's garden, finding friendship through imagination.

Story·Julia Soderholm, age 13 — A young woman finds solace in morning rituals and simple pleasures before heading to the beach to write, savoring solitude before crowds arrive.