by Seth I. Pickens
Executive Features Editor and
Lucy Hansen
Assistant Features Editor
Tell us what’s on your mind.
This is the question that The Boston Globe challenged teens all around the world to answer for the Teens Speak Series 2023. Teen Speak is a writing competition held annually by The Boston Globe to empower the youth by publishing their submissions. Teens could submit any form of media, audio, or video, written under 700 words about whatever they wanted.
Submissions were opened in early March and closed on July 14. The Teens Speak series received a great number of complex and profound responses, and among the 14 accepted was Costa senior Emre Taner’s creative piece, “What I Was Thinking.”
“The article was just about my summer before senior year, and all the thoughts that were going through my head while I was on that train in Boston,” said Taner. “More specifically, I was thinking about the anxiety and stress that the college application process can inflict on kids today.”
Taner’s piece is a short blurb describing his thoughts on college in the form of a first-person monologue. According to Taner, he wrote the piece to convey the confusing and stressful nature of his senior year in high school.
“I wrote it because I felt that the first semester of senior year is challenging for many of my peers,” Taner said. “I wanted to let them know how I was feeling about it myself, maybe provide some tips for calming down from writing essays and filling out applications.
The Boston Globe Teen Speak Series opened submissions to teens all over the world. They reportedly received several hundred applications but only published 14. According to Taner, being able to be one of the featured writers is an amazing feeling.
“I am also deeply grateful,” Taner said. “The fact that The Boston Globe chose my writing to publish was a huge surprise but a welcome surprise nonetheless. I was truly honored to be on The Boston Globe at such a young age, and it has truly expanded my horizons. ”
According to Taner, he has always been a passionate writer. For him, being able to write this piece was a way for him to partake in his lifelong passion.
“This was a collection of thoughts that came to mind, which I decided to submit,” Tanner said. “I guess it’s kind of philosophical in a sense. I hope to have my future work relating to AI in business published too, so this was a great opportunity to learn the ropes of being published in a major newspaper.”
In his senior year, Taner has been able to handle the stress that initially inspired his piece. He wants to leave this last message for everyone going through college applications.
“As the college process gets harder and more selective over the years, and average stress levels go up in children, I want people to remember that no matter where they go to college, they will be alright,” said Taner.
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