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Looking for a steady supply of coming of age short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

6510+ Coming of age Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. No matter how old you are, there’s just something inherently relatable about coming-of-age tales. Discover the best new coming-of-age stories right here!

Coming of age Short Stories – Page 7 of 434

An Empty World.

Submitted to Contest #299

She didn’t remember much about the drive to the farmhouse, she just remembered the rain tapping against the Land Rover windscreen and the smears left behind by the wipers. She remembered the way her father kept checking the side mirror, like he was expecting someone to be following them. He didn’t speak to her much at all. Not at the station, not on the road back to his farm, not even when they pulled up to the house, a place that looked so old. It was like it had been borrowed from another time. It had been three days since the funeral; she...

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Happiness

Submitted to Contest #298

Reinvention is difficult, happiness is harder.That’s the trick of the gods. They made the one thing we want the most — the most difficult. Maybe AI will figure it out.Unlikely, I think, as I kick the rock down the street.I stand in the rain, drenched through.I don’t care.Maybe I’m a psycho.Maybe you’re a psycho for reading this story.All I knew was I didn’t like my life, not one bit.But I did like her.The only time my heart ever lit up, the only time my breath ever caught, was when I saw her.But it could never work out between us.I kick the ...

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The Funniest and Realest

Submitted to Contest #298

I love my body.I truely do. Everything about it. Everything, that is, except my ears.They’re not just big.Big ears I could live with. All the better to hear you with, my dear.But they’re—sorry bunnies—fricking big rabbit ears.Seriously.They stick up about seven inches from the top of my head. And no, they don’t flop over. And no, they aren't soft and furry like the read deal.They’re human ears. Made out of fleshy cartilage just like yours. Only humongous.Too big to cover with a wig or a hat.And too embarrassing not to.So, no surprise, I’m a ...

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Kid Hollywood

Submitted to Contest #299

KID HOLLYWOOD by Moss Hall My career as a kid movie actor began on a high note and gradually slid into the dumper. My mother had signed me up with the Central Casting Agency shortly after my birth, and at the age of six months I was signed to play the baby son of a major A List actress in a film directed by William Wellman. The film tanked. So there I was, washed up at the age of one. But this didn’t stop Mom. Central Casting continued to call and I appeared in some 30 more flicks over the next ten years. I hated it. Being dragged out of...

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I'll Be Back

Submitted to Contest #299

I was fourteen the first time I snuck out. As a lowly freshman, I was trying to overcome a heart-wrenching breakup with my first love. He was a senior—handsome, kind, and funny. He came from a wealthy family, though I didn't care one way or the other, even if riding in his Acura totally boosted my cool factor. He was at the top of his class both academically and in popularity. I considered him completely out of my league. It shocked me when he asked me out and further shocked me when we fell head-over-heels in love. Our relationship began at...

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The Beetle Who Went To The Sun

Submitted to Contest #298

“I’m gonna go to the sun one day mom.” The beetle said to his mother, as he watched on their little television, wide eyed, the grainy black and white footage of a rocket launching into outer space. And for the many days after the little beetle spent them flying around model spacecrafts he’d created from twigs and neglecting his beetle responsibilities. “Beetles don’t go to space!” His mother shouted one night over dinner in frustration, “So eat your poop and go freak out some humans in their homes after, you understand?” In a seething rage...

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Lady Dragon of the Year

Submitted to Contest #298

"We had so many wonderful contestants this year and we want to applaud every one of our finalists for their dedication and hard work.""Of course, the judges had the near-impossible task of picking just one winner for Lady Dragon of Sea Mountain High.” How did Ms. Avery do it? Look straight into the thousand lumen lights and to not only not squint, but to smile right back at them. Which was shinier? Which was more synthetic?“Madelyn, your exemplary grades and your many hours of volunteer work, not to mention earning first chair violin in our ...

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God Don’t Make No Junk

Submitted to Contest #299

Bobby Joe was two quarts light when God man ‘em. His eyes split so wide his vision was something of a constant peripheral. Damned if he ever saw what was right in front ‘em, though. Poor kid was a mouth breather. Not in no sense of the nerd type, or nothin’, but Bobby Joe really did only breathe out of his mouth. An upper lip that was closer to the base of his nostrils than it's partner lip and one single buck wide tooth paired with one stunted one. Bit like him, I guessed. “Bobby Joe, kick that can back over here, will ya?” Sutt...

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Even Honeysuckle is a Just a Weed

Submitted to Contest #298

I drenched the cold, cheese-less scrambled eggs in off-brand ketchup and shook the life out of the salt shaker until I saw thin, translucent granules floating in the thick red sea. What was I supposed to do? I didn’t know how to fucking cook. How was a 13-year-old boy expected to make breakfast, lunch, and dinner for both himself and his schizophrenic mother? “Mom!” I would yell from the kitchen, hoping for a response since that meant she was at least inside. Back then, my mom was taking her clothes off in our front lawn a lot. She’d sit th...

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Things Adults Say (That Don't Make Sense) As overheard, misunderstood, and overthinked by me, age 11¾

Submitted to Contest #299

Have you ever noticed adults love to talk? Half the time, they’re not saying anything that makes sense. The other half, it’s just them trying to shut you up without even answering you. Lucky for you, I hear everything—and I mean everything. Just keep reading and you’ll see what I mean, I’ve cracked the parent clap-back code.Here’s the lingo. Trust me when I say, this information will make your life easier once you understand what parents are really saying versus what they actually mean. Don’t let them we know because they might change it or ...

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Her Fault

Submitted to Contest #298

Her. Why does it always come back to her? She’s meandering outside in some dark and filthy yard. There is so much junk and toys everywhere I can hardly make out the different piles. I try to approach her quietly, unsure of what I’ll do when I catch up. She looks up from the mess she’s in and makes eye contact with me. I stare back motionless, hoping she doesn’t really notice me. She takes off running.Without even thinking I’m after her, clipping my toes on hidden furniture and tripping over loose toys. She’s made such a big mess of things. I...

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Picnics and Poetry

Submitted to Contest #298

“Lets have a picnic!” Little did I know that this ordinary request would forever change my life. So of course I said yes. I was a young co-ed freshman at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa. I came to study Music, and after surviving my first Iowa winter, the first real day of spring beckoned us girls to soak up that fresh air and sunshine. So Becca gathered up a blanket, a basket and some boys to make it happen. There were four girls, and four boys which made up our little group. Becca, my roommate, was a stunning, tall and gorgeous woman...

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Green Behind the Ears

Submitted to Contest #298

Walking to eat her lunch, Tanya saw Armand, the new kid, sitting under the tree. Her tree.‘Why is he there? That’s my place. Just what I need….’Next to the schoolyard fence, the spot let her imagine freedom from her ‘middle school incarceration.’ She fantasized about scaling the fence and escaping before the guards could stop her.‘But escape to where?’ She never knew the answer to that.Tanya wasn’t in the mood for company. Her friends annoyed her. And the boy who always flirted with her was distracted by some other girl.‘Gretchen… what a nam...

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Where Bougainvilleas Bloom

Submitted to Contest #298

We don’t have spring in the Philippines, not in the way they write about it in books. There’s no snow melting on windowsills, no cherry blossoms waking the streets in a pink haze. But we do have tagsibol. The season of bloom. The season when rice paddies blush green again, when trees that once stood naked in drought slowly dress themselves again with leaves, with life. It comes after amihan, after the cold winds that leave the skin dry and the soul tired. It is the season of bloom. Where Bougainvilleas, those wild, unbothered flowers, star...

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Discipline is Love

Submitted to Contest #298

"Just five more minutes..." Bob Marley played out Three Little Birds on the phone's alarm as the sun rose outside Peela's window and the real birds started to greet the day. She thought, How nice it would be to just lay here and listen to how happily they chirp, in this warm lighting of this spring day... It wasn't but a few seconds and Peela had once again, overslept, even after a stern decision she had made before to get up before the birds, before the sun, and before Laal would have a word with her. Sleeping in was a regular bad habit th...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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