The National Day on Writing®, which falls on October 20 of each year, asks us to consider the myriad forms writing can take and why we choose to write. Most of us write every day—whether a text message, a journal entry, or an email. Sometimes we’re working on something more complex, like an essay, book, or manual.
The meaning that writing takes varies depending on the topic and format, and each year we think deeply about what writing does for the writer. This exploration takes on special meaning when that writer is a student using their voice and experience to communicate what is important to them.
In the lead-up to the 2025 National Day on Writing, in partnership with the National Coalition Against Censorship and its Student Advocates for Speech program, we are publishing daily insights in this blog post and on social media from students across the country. They’ve thought deeply about why they write and shared those insights with us. We hope you will take a few moments each day to read and share, and be sure to ask your students—and yourselves—to answer the question: Why do you write?
Sophie Andreassen
High school senior
Ohio
Writing, as soon as I venture beyond my life’s exact parameters, demands that I think in perspectives contradicting my own. The act of fleetingly sharing another person’s skin is thought-provoking, and it is for this precisely that I write. I write to become more empathetic; I write to know.
Ian Choi
High school junior
California
I like writing because of its ambiguity. It’s the best way to express ideas to a less accepting society.
Aahanna Das
High school junior
South Carolina
I write to advocate for the things marked in silence, and to challenge the comfort we have accepted as a society. Writing is what bridges advocacy and art—without it, we fade into indifference.
Riley Devereaux
High school senior
Virginia
I write to express the words that others can’t say and to demand change. I write so my message is timeless and carries through for eternity.
Callista Domingo
High school junior
New York
I write to untangle the noise inside of me, translating what only silence can hold. Writing lets me cling onto moments before they disappear into time and rearrange the ordinary until it surprises me.
Wyatt Edwards
High school sophomore
Massachusetts
I write to advocate for myself and others. Freedom of expression means a lot to me because I have to work to do so. Expression doesn’t come easy for me so it is more important. When I write, I feel joy representing what I imagine for the world.
Jennie-Kate Hannis
High school senior
Virginia
I write to understand myself. In anything I write, even in the most impersonal essays, a bit of my personality, my voice, manages to shine through. I can always discover something new about myself through my writing.
Savannah Hopkins
High school junior
Massachusetts
I write because it is the mark I can make- on the world. I write because I can never stop talking, never stop standing up for something I believe in. Also, writing is an art—and I am an artist.
Rebeca Ramirez
High school junior
Indiana
I write to share the stories of the voiceless. To uplift them. To make it known that they exist, and that they matter. I write to share my own stories. To leave my mark on the world. I write for a better future for everyone.
Anvi Srivastava
High school junior
Illinois
I write to remember and to be remembered. Each word holds a specific memory that I cannot afford to lose. Memories, dreams, they all fade, but ink holds them. Someday, somewhere, someone will read what I write—something time could not erase.
Samira Yunusova
High school junior
New York
I write in an attempt to understand the world around me and what my role is in it. In anything I write, whether academic or personal, I inject my own voice so I’m able to say that this is my work—unable to be replicated. Writing is my vehicle of change.
Chelsea Zhu
High school senior
Maryland
Sometimes, I want to fly. Sometimes, I want to go sledding without a hill.
I write because sometimes that is all I have. I write because its sound grows into an echo. I write because I laugh and grieve. I write because the world becomes a body I can hold.