Learning Network: The 17 winners of our Tiny Memoir Contest

February 19, 2026

Good morning! We’re excited to share the winning “tiny memoirs” selected from over 14,000 submissions. Plus, we have a graph about teens’ use of video games, students’ thoughts about books and reading, and a webinar about A.I. — The Learning Network

The winners of our 100-word Personal Narrative Contest

A photo of a boy petting a baby shark, a boy in a blue shirt smiling, a plate of orange slices and a girl smiling in a hospital bed.

Our teenage winners wrote miniature memoirs about catching a baby shark, running for student government, playing Minecraft in the hospital and more. Image credits clockwise from top left: Gilbert Unatin, Saori Kousaka, Caroline Zhang, Amy Franck.

A Halloween night gone wrong. A mother-daughter face-off. A baby shark surprise. A farewell to the em dash.

We challenged teenagers to write a story about a meaningful moment in their lives in just 100 words. These are the subjects of some of the 14,232 “tiny memoir” submissions we received.

Read the 17 winning memoirs, and then leave a comment telling these young authors how their stories struck you.

More teaching resources from The Learning Network

Jason Gulley for The New York Times

Visual Literacy: Have students look closely and try to figure out what’s going on in the above picture.
A Webinar for Students: We’re currently inviting students to submit their video questions about A.I. in advance of our “How A.I. Is Reshaping Our World” webinar on March 4. Register for the webinar here.
Writing Prompts: Recently we asked students whether schools should limit the number of A’s that teachers can give; what love in their life they are most grateful for; and whether they prefer home-cooked meals, restaurant dining or takeout.
Vocabulary Words: Can your students use officious, rife and ubiquitous in a sentence?

Classroom Activity: What’s going on in this graph about video games?

Do teenagers think video games positively or negatively impact their lives?

Ask students to analyze the graph above and then participate in our “What’s Going On in This Graph?” discussion. Live moderation will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 25.

Before you go, see what teens are saying about reading.

When we asked teenagers what books and reading mean to them, they shared a range of perspectives, from those who see books as an “escape” to other worlds, to those who view reading as a “chore.” Here is a taste of the discussion:

I love books. I’ve always loved books. To me, books are a portal to another planet, a refreshing escape from reality. I know that seems strange to non-readers, but no matter how I’m feeling — happy, exhausted, overwhelmed — there’s always a book to fit the mood. — Maeve, Glen Ellyn, IL

If life is a hike, then books would be the rest points in between. For me, diving into a book after a tiring school day is like catching my breath after a laborious uphill climb. It’s stopping and calming my mind for a moment. — Talia, Hawaii

I personally do not like to read and it’s not really a passion I like. I do although believe that if my mom had not read to me as much as she did as a kid, I wouldn’t be who I am today. The books she read to me taught me morals, showed me new perspectives and increased my creativity and imagination. — Chloe, Valley Stream North High School

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