At YoungMinds, we are committed to turning real life experiences into positive change for children and young people’s mental health. That’s why we have opportunities and programmes that support young people like you to share your story.
As a YoungMinds writer, you could use your voice to create change and help other young people with their mental health.
There are two ways you can write for us: by joining our Blogger Pool or by applying to our Writers Programme. Take a look at these opportunities in more detail below to find out which one is right for you.
Join our Blogger Pool
By signing up to become a blogger, you’ll get the opportunity to share your story, tips and advice on our website in the YoungMinds blog.
Once you’ve signed up, you’ll become part of our Blogger Pool who receive emails from us every two months with ideas and prompts for blogs we’d like to see. These emails will also include information on what to do if you’d like to write a blog for us and how to submit it.
When writing your blog, you can use our writing guidelines to support you. These will be sent out in the emails you receive. If your blog is a suitable fit for our website, we will make edits and send you the final version to look at before we publish it on our website.
Our Blogger Pool is currently open for new sign-ups. If you’re interested in sharing your story on the YoungMinds blog, sign up today.
Instead of seeing myself as someone who needed to be fixed, and searching desperately for someone or something to solve my problems, I started seeing an opportunity for me to use the difficult experiences I’ve had for good.
Apply to our Writers Programme
Our Writers Programme is a year-long programme for young people with experience of struggling with their mental health. It starts in September and ends in July.
Over the course of the year, you’ll receive training through monthly writers’ group sessions that take place on Saturdays. During these sessions, you will:
- take part in writing activities
- hear from a range of guest speakers working in the media
- discuss what you’re working on
- discuss ideas for upcoming content
Through these sessions, you’ll develop the skills you need to create exciting and engaging mental health content for young people, which will be published on the YoungMinds blog. You will also learn other skills, such as how to pitch ideas, how to write about your own experiences safely, and how to interview people. So far, we’ve been joined by speakers from a variety of backgrounds and publications, including Channel 4, Stylist, Gal-dem and Huck.
Towards the end of the year, you’ll work together to plan, write, and design a zine to be published at the end of the programme. This is a self-published collection of writing and images, which can include anything from essays to poetry, photographs to illustrations, recipes to playlists. You and the other members of the programme will decide on everything about the zine, including the content, theme, look and feel.
Take a look at the zine created by the writers who took part in our 2022-23 programme.
Applications for our Writers Programme are currently closed. Sign up to our mailing list to be the first to hear about our next Writers Programme and other opportunities to get involved.
Who can write for YoungMinds?
To write for YoungMinds on either of our programmes, you must:
- be aged 14-25
- live in the UK
- have experience of struggling with your mental health (N.B. you don't have to have been diagnosed with a mental health condition)
We’re particularly keen to hear from young people from backgrounds, or with experiences, that have often been under-represented in the mental health conversation.
Please note that if you are under 18, you will need a parent/guardian to give their consent in the sign-up form.
What are the time commitments?
Blogger Pool
As a member of our Blogger Pool, you can choose what blogs you want to write from the list of topic ideas in our emails. This means you’ll have the flexibility to decide when and how often you write blogs for us.
Writers Programme
The Writers Programme requires a bigger time commitment. You will need to be able to commit to the following:
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Online sessions once a month
You will be invited to attend monthly online sessions on Saturdays – the exact dates for these will be listed on the application form.
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Two in-person events
We hold two in-person events, one at the start and one at the end of the programme. Travel costs and refreshments will be provided for these, but if you have any other access needs or concerns about the in-person events, please do let us know and we will do our best to accommodate them.
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Time to work on your stories
How much writing you do between sessions is entirely up to you, but you’ll need to be committed to spending some time working on your stories and thinking about the topics you want to write about. During the year, we would expect you to write at least one blog, and contribute towards the zine.
It is important that you do try to attend as many sessions as possible to get the most out of the Writers Programme. Of course we understand that things come up unexpectedly, but if you know that attending these meetings will be difficult for you, then joining our Blogger Pool may be a better option for you.
Stories from previous YoungMinds writers
Writing for YoungMinds – FAQs
The main things to consider when choosing what to apply for are the time commitments and the level of support you’d like.
On the Writers Programme, you’ll benefit from additional training and support, and will need to attend our monthly online group sessions. You’ll be part of a supportive community of storytellers and receive guidance and feedback to help you share your story. You’ll also need to dedicate some of your own time to writing this story and coming up with ideas.
If you want to share your experiences but aren’t able to commit to attending monthly sessions, or you want more flexibility in how you contribute, you might be better suited to our Blogger Pool.
When we publish a blog, we like to include the blogger’s first name and age. However, if you are not comfortable with this, you can choose to be anonymous or go by a different name.
When writing your blog, we’ll send you our writing guidelines to support you. Once you submit your blog, we will read it, make edits and provide feedback.
If there’s anything you’re not happy with, please let us know. We will always send you the final version to look at before we publish, and we will never publish anything without your consent.
If you don’t have access to the internet, a webcam or anything else you might need to be able to write for us, we can help with this. Please just get in touch with us to let us know.
If you have any questions about signing up to write for us, you can contact the team at ymwebeditor@youngminds.org.uk.
Other ways to get involved
If a writing programme is not for you, we have lots of other ways you can get involved. Take a look at some of the opportunities we have to support our work.
