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Write a story from the POV of a child or teenager.

Posted in Short Story on Apr 18, 2025

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✍️ 86 stories

The Privileged Kid

Submitted to Contest #299

by Jelena, Age 6 (CEO of Lopsided Legs and Sarcastic Remarks)Before I got paralyzed, I was normal.Well, as normal as a baby who poops in sparkly onesies can be.I was healthy. Loud. Probably very annoying in a cute way. I’ve seen the pictures. I had fat cheeks and a smug little smirk like I was planning world domination from the crib.Suddenly - boom.Vaccine.One little jab at six months old. One tiny pinch. Standard procedure, they said. That day - everything changed.I don’t remember it, obviously. I was too busy chewing on my own foot or what...

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True Colors

Submitted to Contest #299

“Hi, my name is Richard, but everyone calls me Ricky—I’m six and a half.”“Hi Ricky! I’m Jimmy. I’m six, too.”“I’m six and a half! I’ll be seven in September.”“My mom says I’ll be six and a half next month.”“Hey, we’re practically the same age.””That means we’ll be in the same grade. Are you gonna go to Faulkner Ridge Elementary?””I think so. Do you go there?”“Uh-huh. It’s close enough we can walk there. Do you want to be friends?”“Sure, I don’t have any friends here. That means you can be my best friend.”“Okay!”“Whatcha doin’?”“I’m catching ...

27 likes 17 comments 17
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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 ...

25 likes 12 comments 12
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How I Became Acolyte to Primordial Chaos

Shortlisted for Contest #299 ⭐️

CW: TransphobiaHow familiar are you with chaos theory?An old adage goes that if a butterfly somewhere in Brazil flaps its wings, it can potentially form a tornado in Texas, because everything is connected. Ask a meteorologist how often they consult butterfly wings when writing weather reports, and they might look at you a bit funny. But the metaphor still works.So what if you could control the butterflies? Not just one, but all of them? Every single factor in the complex, nearly unknowable ecosystem that led to the destruction, or lack there...

22 likes 12 comments 12
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The Ladies of Loretto

Submitted to Contest #299

I'm scared shitless! Hundreds of girls dressed exactly as I am in dark navy serge uniforms, black stockings, stiff white plastic collars and cuffs and black Oxford shoes. Their Oxfords shine; mine are scuffed. So typically me. It's September 1960. Like penguins on parade, we are lined up, waiting for the doors to open on the next four years of our lives in the holy halls of Loretto College School for young ladies. One small problem: I do not feel like a lady and don't think I want to be one. It sounds boring. I don't belong here. I'm j...

17 likes 14 comments 14
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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...

16 likes 13 comments 13
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How to Spot a Witch (Step 1: Deodorant)

Submitted to Contest #299

It was a cool, late fall day when we met. The leaves were just beginning to litter the ground in a cascade of yellows, oranges, and browns, crunching under my feet as I walked to the high school’s entrance. It’s still hard to believe that we’re in high school now. Ninth grade. Young adults, young professionals, or whatever other bullshit the principal said to us at orientation.It’s been like a month. I should be used to it by now. The intensive workload, the trauma of changing and showering after gym, and students with easily a foot on me an...

14 likes 8 comments 8
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The Magic That Didn’t Fail

Submitted to Contest #299

Would you like to know how I accidentally created a star?Me. A sixteen-year-old girl best known for being invisible.I was the clumsy one — the girl who tripped during PE, got hit in the face by every ball, and was always left behind by the bus.I once wore mismatched shoes all day. No one noticed.I forgot things constantly — like my groceries at the counter… or that time I got into a stranger’s car.People called me Clown Lisa.The only one who ever believed in me was my dad.But he 's gone now.One afternoon my luck changed, on my way home from ...

14 likes 8 comments 8
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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...

13 likes 6 comments 6
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Constance Power Tibbins Will Not Stand For It

Submitted to Contest #299

As I watched the man once again smoking his pipe full of candied peel and haranguing the air with great vigour, it seemed to me that in this world one could be purposeful, even whilst being quite thoroughly mad.I thought, moreover, he was hard of hearing, as he produced two tiny trumpets, placing one in each ear, before announcing himself with the prodigious volume of the extremely deaf.‘Wassup?’ he said, to nobody.He spoke often of blessings, which led me to consider whether he was a holy man. His attire was not that of the clergy - he in f...

13 likes 14 comments 14
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You never saw this coming

Submitted to Contest #299

Let me take you back to the time I, Thalia—an 11-year-old nature nerd with the innate capability to touch any plant in my vicinity and miraculously not get poisoned—embarked on what I now fondly refer to as “The Bus to Hell and Heaven.”It all began with a flight. Not just any flight. It was the kind of flight that made us feel like celebrities, minus the paparazzi, plus 30 adrenaline-pumped teens ranging from 6th to 12th graders and at least one poor soul who brought a blow dryer to the mountains. (Spoiler: We never used it.)We were headed t...

12 likes 4 comments 4
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Soody

Submitted to Contest #299

Soody My momma was white trash, and I was black and white trash, in the eyes of the world around us. Penchant, Alabama wasn’t much of a world, but I didn’t know that then. They might’ve been right about Momma, she didn’t seem fit for much. But I was nothing like her. She stayed late in bed on any day she could, when I was up with the larks. Her voice was high and thin, while mine was deep and strong, especially for a girl. That was from living with brothers, older and l...

11 likes 7 comments 7
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The Brotherhood of Kids' Day

Submitted to Contest #299

Dear Mom,Now that Max is 11 and I'm 12, we’ve finally figured out your scam. Mother’s Day is a day invented by mothers. The truth is, you wouldn’t be having a day at all if it weren’t for us, so for starters, you’re welcome. There’s National Strawberry Day, Grandparents Day, Dog Day, Squirrel Appreciation Day, and even a Talk Like a Pirate Day. You failed miserably for never telling us about that last one.When is Kid’s Day? Please don’t say “everyday” because if that were true, we wouldn’t go to school or bathe, ever. You told us Mother’s Da...

11 likes 3 comments 3
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Cold Peas for Breakfast

Submitted to Contest #299

Childhood trauma can last a lifetime. For me, my trauma revolved around peas. There is a valid reason why this trauma exists that stretches all the way back to when I was five years old. To this day, I cannot stand to eat peas. The taste of them makes me gag. In some cases when peas are mixed with other food items, I may get away with eating them, but alone, by themselves, I cannot even put them in my mouth. My mother passed away when I was three years old. I remember living in a two-story home. Dad was a certified public accountant (C...

11 likes 9 comments 9
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The Mystery of Operation Tighten the Belt

Submitted to Contest #299

Let me tell you about the day I became a superhero. It was a Thursday, and Thursdays are usually boring. School was boring, lunch was boring and dull, and even our dog, Max, looked bored. But everything changed when I found… The Cape. It was stuffed in the back of my closet, under a pile of clothes that Mom kept telling me to put away. (I'll put them away eventually — probably when I'm thirty.) Anyway, the Cape was bright red, and I'm pretty sure it used to be part of my Halloween costume from when I was five. But when I put it on, something...

11 likes 11 comments 11
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