KidSpirit provides a unique forum for young people to explore life’s big questions, and award recipients represent the wide range of perspectives, backgrounds, and interests that make up the magazine’s global community. This year’s award-winning pieces showcase brave, creative, and inspiring approaches of youth to a wide array of substantive topics.

Editors have recognized two collaboratively written articles in the Feature section: “Can Policy Protect our Planet?,” in which two high school students from New York analyze and compare political reactions to climate change in the United States and abroad; and “Festival of Flavors,” a six-week series in which 12- to 16-year-old writers from Pakistan, India, China, and the United States share family recipes and their significance. Other winning Features include an insightful assessment of the relationship between power and body language; an essay on how movies can entrench stereotypes in our culture; and a lyrical piece on how well we can know our own families.

Each issue of KidSpirit revolves around a Big Question posed by the editors. In this year’s award-winning Big Question response, “Inked Identity,” a 16-year-old New Zealander of Korean heritage illustrates how the traditions of the indigenous Maori people serve as a metaphor for the indelible influence of our origins.

Winning Awesome Moments pieces include an inspirational story about a chance encounter with an extraordinary self-taught Pakistani teen and a moving account of how one son shares his father’s love for triathlons. In the Interfaith Connections section, editors have honored a personal essay about one contributor’s understanding of her Hispanic Jewish identity; an analysis of the responsibilities of the powerful as taught in the Islamic tradition; and an explanation of the disconnect between what one young man has been taught to believe about strangers and the fear borne from the reality of his experiences. KidSpirit Awards are also given for artwork, poetry, and media reviews published over the past year.

The PerSpectives award, the only award reserved for an adult author, goes to renowned interfaith activist Valarie Kaur, founder of Groundswell. Kaur’s essay, “Harry Potter and the Magic to Remake the World,” urges readers to recognize their inner power as changemakers and to advocate for justice and mutual understanding.

For a complete list of winners, please visit KidSpirit’s new website at kidspiritonline.com/about/whats-new/.

For media inquiries, please contact Jessie Post at the information above.