The foreword to our anthology of student writing from the past 100 years, A Thousand Familiar Faces: 100 Years of Teen Voices, was written by award-winning author and Scholastic Inc. Vice President and Executive Editor Andrea Davis Pinkney. You can read the stirring foreword below.

Here. Now. Always.

. . . 1927. . . 2016. . . 1933. . . 2010. . . 1946. . . 1994. . . 2004. . . 1986. . .

. . . Texas. . . Japan. . . Oklahoma. . . Chicago. . . Africa. . . Old Korea. . .Iran. . . New York. . .

Of time and place, and an ache to be heard.

Their beating hearts, an echo, pumping here-I-am rhythms.

Roars from deep-down.

Whispers and shouts, sometimes with no sound.

Other times, screaming loud enough to wake the world.

Quiet thunder. Wordplay. Harmonies. Honesty.

For a century, the voices of teen writers have found refuge, liberation, community, and salvation through the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. They’ve come from cities thick with concrete; backwater towns weighed down by ignorance; prosperous lands steeped in colorful traditions; green-lawn suburbs; cow farms.

With their bold, creative expression, these emerging writers have peeled themselves open to reveal their highest powers.

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards were founded in 1923 by Scholastic’s founder, Maurice R. Robinson. Its purpose was to give high school students who showed artistic promise the same recognition and accolades as their athletic classmates. Mr. Robinson’s vision was also to stimulate teachers to give greater attention to kids whose talents were expressed in writing and the visual arts. The awards inspired teachers to encourage their kids to find joy and strength by sharing their individuality. In choosing who would receive Art & Writing Awards, the adjudication process was a powerful statement on equity, inclusion, and belonging. Judging worked without including the artist’s or writer’s identity, which ensured students would be judged solely by the content of their creativity. Freedom of expression meant that every form of storytelling and subject matter would be considered. Originality, vision, and skill were also core to the criteria. Mr. Robinson’s statement on the awards and their impact was clear: “We are in the business of identifying the self-possessed, idiosyncratic voices and visions of teenage writers and artists.”

For a hundred years, this gift has been giving high school students the freedom to celebrate their singular talents. When the awards began, there were few opportunities for teens to freely express themselves and to be acknowledged for the authenticity of their creative contributions.

In this vivid collection of writings by award-winning students throughout the century, you are holding the past—and the future—in your hands. You are embracing a vital and transformative history. And you’re making a commitment to help teenagers stand proudly and fearlessly in the sunlight they’ve created for themselves.

In keeping with Mr. Robinson’s original promise to teen writers, these pages are alight with narratives written by kids of all races, experiences, perspectives, and realities. Here, they each reach out a hand, calling us forward—sometimes through the nuanced brilliance of a pulsating twenty-word poem. Other times, through prose that insists we sit up and listen as its siren’s wail grows louder, forcing us to stay for the ride.

Before you read this collection, be prepared. What’s here is an impressive torrent of writing styles, coming on as hard rain, and rising like mist on a far horizon:

Speculative fiction.

Memoir.

Personal essay.

Free-verse.

Punctuation exploration.

Dialogues.

Grit.

Will.

Heat.

Hue.

With every utterance, these works dare to go into a room where the truth awaits— and they’re brave enough to stay in that raw place. Once inside, each writer holds up a mirror that reveals themselves, while at the same time forcing us to consider our own reflections.

After reading this collection, please pause and take in the view. Savor these pages a second time. And again after that. Then share this treasure with a kid or teacher. Let them experience this beautiful mosaic that has been created with variegated tiles, patterns, and bursts of color to yield a glorious mural.

These young writers have an important place in history. And they have plenty to teach us as they fill—and turn—history’s pages.

A century ago, the Art & Writing Awards made a promise to teen writers—an unwavering pact that has been honored since its beginning: No matter your race, beliefs, family, gender identification, social class, or chosen form of creative self-expression, you, young writer, are seen and celebrated. Here. Now. Always.

As we look to the next hundred years, we can rejoice in the promise of a new future, sprung from the souls of young people.

Andrea Davis Pinkney
Vice President
Executive Editor, Scholastic Inc.
New York Times best-selling author

Art by Philip Pearlstein, Alumnus, 1941-42