If you're a New York City teen and you like the idea of writing stories that will help your peers, YCteen may be the place for you.

YCteen writers get published online and in a print magazine that's distributed to hundreds of high schools, libraries, and community-based organizations in New York City. Most teens on the staff write personal stories about their own lives, and reported stories about issues that affect young people.

School-Year Program

During the school year, we welcome teen writers to work with us either as volunteers or for high school credit as interns.

Benefits:

• Be a voice for teens
• Improve your writing
• Learn interviewing and research skills
• Work with professional adult editors
• Learn to work in an office environment with supervisors and colleagues
• Get published!
• Get skills and clips that will help you get into college and get jobs.

Requirements:

• You must be between the ages of 15 and 20.
• We're open to writers of all skill levels, but you must have a strong interest writing, and a willingness to learn the skills you need to produce stories that will help your peers.
• You must live in or near New York City and commit to working a minimum of two days a week, two hours a day for three months at our midtown Manhattan office. (Our office is open to writers from 1- 6p.m. Monday through Thursday.)
• For the fall semester, writers must begin no later than October 1; for the spring semester, no later than March 1. We also run an intensive summer writing workshop during July and August. Applications are available by March 1, and are usually due by mid-May. (There will be a link to the application on the home page.)

To apply:

• As a volunteer: Contact Autumn at aspanne@youthcomm.org or call (212) 279-0708, ext. 116. If you meet all the above requirements, the first step in the application process is to schedule an interview. Following the interview, we will ask you to complete two sample writing assignments, which we will explain when we meet you.
• As a high school intern: Talk to your school's guidance counselor or internship coordinator to see if your school will give you credit for working with us. To print out a flier about our internships, which you can show your school guidance counselor or internship coordinator, click here.

Summer Writing Workshop

A select group of writers is chosen to participate in Youth Communication's intensive six-week summer workshop. For more information and an application to the summer writing workshop, click here.