If you have read any comment for younger peoplenone of the statistics below will surprise you.
About 19% of Americans 12 to 19-year-olds are depressed – higher than any adult age group. Only about 58.5% of teenagers who are 12 to 17, meanwhile, they say they take consistently the emotional and social support they need. They often have little faith in institutions – be it the government or the schools, or each other. And the average American child ages 8 to 18 spends 7.5 hours a day watching or using screens.
On the one hand, these statistics are understandable: Young people face a future shaped by climate stress, political extremism, economic instability and years of loneliness.
But these numbers may only tell part of the story.
I’ve spent the last six months reading hundreds of poems submitted by young writers between the ages of 10 and 21. In June 2026, we will publish an anthology of writing by 177 of these young people in “1455 Anthology of Young Poets.”
More than 300 young people submitted their poems to a non-profit I run called 1455 Storytelling Arts. The poets are primarily from the US, but nine other countries are represented.
I was constantly surprised, encouraged and inspired by reading their poetry. In a world that sometimes seems to reward the loudest and the most aggressive, the richest and the most selfish, these young poets understand something simple and profound that I think many adults have forgotten: Hope is not optimism. It’s endurance.
1455 Literary Arts
“The only way is to pass”
For the young writers whose work has passed through my desk, the hope for a better future seems to be both a personal and a collective act of accountability. It is a denial accept a status quo in politics and other lifestyles that may not work for some people.
Again and again, young people submitted poems that wrestled with loneliness, broken families, violence, identity, stress, sadness and uncertainty.
Layla Dwelle, age 15, addresses this tense atmosphere of information overload and anxiety by writing, “I’m tired of the cycle / I’m tired of the bad / I’m tired of what is / I’m tired of what isn’t.”
However, many also revealed a reluctance to give in completely to despair. Alicia Chow, 14, writes: “I realize the only way is through / So I keep moving in defiance of loss.”
These poems acknowledge pain, but identify tenderness in the darkest corners of life. They describe a world that has a soundtrack to two extremes: chaos and silence. They face real fear and insist that witnessing to the world gives purpose and meaning to people’s lives.
These writers, in short, do not give up – they seek to create a future that revises the dysfunctional present, which they see as a work in progress.
The titles of some poems speak volumes about the worlds and feelings these poems explore: “Self-Portrait as a Firefly,” “The Cost of Rain,” “Those Who Run,” “A Prayer for a New Era,” “The Grass That Grows in the Cracks,” and “Scars on the Soul.”
Where reality meets urgency
What struck me most in editing this anthology was not the poets’ honesty or vulnerability, although both of those qualities were present.
Instead, it was their maturity that really stood out. There is a focused seriousness to their writing that combines political reality with a sense of urgency.
Here is Emily Bennett, 18, from her poem, “For the Love of the Sunk Cost Fallacy”:
Because,
nothing real hurts forever.
And sometimes the bravest thing
all you can do is just open your arms.
Many of these young writers attempt to answer questions that adults themselves struggle with or avoid, including how to remain human in a culture of distraction.
This is a theme that the American author Jenny Odell forces addresses in the 2019 book“How to Do Nothing: Resist the Attention Economy.” Her thesis, simple but radical, is that attention is humans’ most vital resource, and all humans are bombarded 24/7 with algorithmic strategies that seek to distract and divide them. He astutely describes “the mindless circulation of information,” which, not so coincidentally, is something poetry has always dealt with in silence.
The poems raise other questions. How do people care for each other without becoming uncomfortably numb to the pain and suffering of others? How people imagine and create a future while constantly being reminded of it growing inequality in many countries and with the richest people in the world he gets richer quickly?
The fact that so many young people are still turning to poetry is, to me, important, if not important.
Poetry is not usually a commercially rewarding art form. It forces readers to slow down, sit with ambiguity, and experience language in ways that enhance the inner life.
If today’s algorithms reward speed, brand, and certainty, poetry rewards reflection. This is the professor’s thesis and Atlantic editor Walt Hunter’s enlightening – and quite encouraging – recent article, “Stop meeting students where they are”, which we recently discussed in detail my podcast“Some things to consider.”
Young Americans may not have given up after all
Young people are not ignorant of the world’s problems. The young poets I’ve read see empathy not as a weakness, but as a bold imperative to help make the world kinder, more just.
I can think of no better example than 16-year-old poet Dave Thompson’s provocative title What If Jesus Was a Little Brown Boy in the USA:
But you are here.
A little God walking to school,
still pretty silly
still quite holy
believing love can mean
what does he say
As a podcaster and teacher of storytelling, I can’t count how many times have I heard people my age or older lament that today’s generation doesn’t read or doesn’t care. This theme appears almost in every panel discussion I’ve been on recently.
I think these kinds of claims for young people they are both simplistic and unhelpful. In some ways, while mental health is a real concern for young people, they are doing better than their predecessors in other ways. Youth arrest rates have been declining since the 1990s in the US, for example, and in the US high school students are more likely than ever to graduate.
I think we need to pay attention to some of the messages these young poets are sending. We may even seek to imitate them.
