Writopia Lab Competitors

Founded in 2001, WriteGirl is a nationally-recognized creative writing and mentoring organization serving more than 700 teen girls/gender-expansive youth and young adults annually, mainly from LA's high-density neighborhoods. Through workshops, mentoring and publishing opportunities, WriteGirl helps teens develop creative writing and communication skills as well as confidence. WriteGirl envisions a world where all teens live, write, and speak boldly as they become inspiring, transformative leaders, driven to effect positive change in their communities. Since 2001, WriteGirl has maintained a 100 percent success rate in helping its seniors not only graduate from high school, but also enroll in college. WriteGirl received national attention in 2021 when WriteGirl alum Amanda Gorman performed her poetry at the Biden-Harris Inauguration. WriteGirl has won more than 100 awards for its 24 years of empowering teen girls. WriteGirl and Executive Director Keren Taylor were awarded the 2020 Los Angeles Times Innovator Award and in 2014 Keren Taylor was named a CNN Hero. In 2013, WriteGirl was honored by First Lady Michelle Obama with the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, the highest national honor awarded to exemplary out-of-school time programs. WriteGirl also works with boys and co-ed groups under the name “Bold Ink Writers.” As a founding member of the Arts for Healing and Justice Network (AHJN), Bold Ink Writers brings creative writing workshops and mentors to youth who are incarcerated or systems-impacted. For more information, visit www.writegirl.org.

826 National amplifies the impact of our national network of youth writing and publishing centers, and the words of young authors. We serve as an international proof point for writing as a tool for young people to ignite and channel their creativity, explore identity, advocate for themselves and their community, and achieve academic and professional success. We work towards a country in which the power and the joy of writing is accessible to every student in every classroom. The 826 Network serves over 700,000 students ages 6 to 18 each year via 826 Digital and through nine chapters: 826 Boston, 826CHI, 826DC, 826LA, 826michigan, 826 MSP, 826 New Orleans, 826NYC, and 826 Valencia. This work is possible thanks to the support of almost 5,000 volunteers. Each chapter has an imaginative storefront that reimagines tutoring as anything but traditional; provides a gateway for meeting families, teachers, and volunteers; and connects students with community members. And of course, sells student publications. In addition, there are over 50 organizations around the world inspired by the 826 model collectively serving an additional 150,000 students. 826 National is the hub of the 826 Network: facilitating collaboration and alignment among our chapters, and bringing the 826 Network model and approach to new communities. Together, we believe writing is the key to cultivating a new generation of creative and diverse thinkers who will define a better, brighter, and more compassionate future.

Kids Can Press, the largest Canadian-owned children’s publisher in the world — home to major children’s brands Franklin the Turtle and Scaredy Squirrel, and to an array of international award-winning books — celebrated its 40th Anniversary in 2013. From its early years as a small collective borne out of a desire to publish high-quality, socially responsible children’s books, Kids Can Press has evolved into a broad-based content company, adapting as the world of books and publishing has changed through the decades. Kids Can Press consistently delivers high-quality print books that parents, teachers, librarians and children around the world have come to expect from the Toronto-based publisher, and currently leads the way in Canada with the most children’s illustrated ebooks in the market. Kids Can Press books continually garner critical acclaim, and for the past five years the publisher has dominated the Governor General’s Literary Awards, having won five awards for children’s books in as many years — more than any other children’s publisher since 2003 — most recently for Virginia Wolf (2012) and Ten Birds (2011). For 40 years, Kids Can Press has delivered exceptional children’s books through numerous formats (from audio books to game apps) and various marketplaces (from independent bookstores to ebook retailers), and looks forward to what the future brings to children’s publishing.