Gabby Woida, an Arrowhead Junior, was published in Teen Ink and won the One Sentence Love Story competition.

Teen Ink is a, “national teen magazine devoted entirely to teenage writing, art, photos, and forums.”

The February magazine held 2 main topics including, “Black History Month and Reclaiming Identity,” and, “Celebrating Love: Partners, Grandparents, Siblings, and Yourself!”

Woida was featured on Page 22, she was the contest winner of the One Sentence Love Story. Her piece read, “To the person writing my story, keep her in it as long as you can.” 

Woida when asked about what her piece was about said, “It stood for a lot of things. A sister, a best friend, a partner. I believe we all have a person that was meant to be in our lives. Someone out there is writing my story so I asked the writer to keep “her” in it as long as possible.

Woida was enrolled in Creative Writing, one of the many English classes, when she found out about this competition. 

Woida said, “I heard of this competition through my teacher Miss Jorgensen! Probably the best writing teacher I have ever had. She taught me so much and introduced me and all my peers to this contest. I entered without thinking about it, and I won!”

She was very enthused to be the contest winner for Teen Ink. Woida said, “I had no clue I would get picked!! I was sitting on my bed when I randomly received an email after submitting this a few months ago and was in shock and was jumping up and down with joy. I was so amazed and joyous.”

Winning to her made her confidence skyrocket. Woida said, “I have genuinely learned so much from Miss Jorgensen. Without her I would not have even entered this contest and without this contest I would never have known I could win something like this. This 100% boosted my confidence.”

Students submitting to the contest had the option of using their name or going anonymous. Woida chose to put a name to the piece. When asked why Woida said, “I think I want people to know who wrote it. I’m proud of my work and want to put my name on it. I could see if I wrote a more personal poem how going anonymous would be a good idea, but I’m proud and want people to know I did this.”

With Woida being proud of her work she also wanted to make others proud of their own work. Woida shared a piece of advice she had for aspiring writers. Woida said, “Just submit it! There’s nothing bad that can happen. You try, you fail, and you do it again. I have submitted about 30 pieces of writing and this piece out of everything won. One sentence. I’m amazed.” 

For anyone wanting to read Woida’s One Sentence Love Story, it is linked here.