Dear Editor of TeenInk:

I currently have 13 articles of writing published on the RAW section of the TeenInk website. 8 of these pieces are poetry. Right now, as I am writing, the poetry section of TeenInk RAW has 28988 writing pieces and the number increases every day. In my opinion, TeenInk RAW is a place for teens to share their writing with the rest of the country and the world. But how do you share your poetry with the rest of the world if there are 28987 other pieces to look at? Why should someone pick your piece, as opposed to anyone else’s, to read?

When I scroll down the list of poetry pieces on the RAW section of the website, I usually look for catchy titles. Maybe it’s a topic I like to read about or just a very strange or interesting title. However, there are so many titles to look at -- again, 28988, to be specific -- there is no way that I can look at everyone’s poetry. This applies to anyone else who likes to browse through the RAW poetry section; I happen to know a few who do.

So, how do we fix this? How about making separate sections for the poetry section? It certainly worked out for the Nonfiction section. There are, of course many different things poetry could be about. And you may ask how to choose what you will split the poetry sections into. I do, unlike most people, read the fine print.

Sections could be racism, eating disorders, depression, death, suicide, family, relationships, grandparents, violence, self esteem, love, and the arts, to name a few. There are so many things to choose from. Another way to organize it would be through types of poetry (e.g. Haikus, Odes, Rhyming, etc).

And, of course, there is the issue of organizing the current poetry pieces into the separate sections. I’m going to guess it’s easy to put in the new sections as an option for when you submit a new poetry piece. However, for the pieces that are already on the website, there could be a drop-down menu installed on all the old pieces that give you the option of which section you’d like to put your poetry into. Once it’s been put in a section, the drop-down menu would disappear. Any poetry that hasn’t been put into a specific section would just be put into the original ‘poetry’ section, which would also be an option, just like the ‘nonfiction’ option in the ‘Nonfiction’ section.

As mentioned before, 28988 poetry pieces are a lot. I think there should be a little more organization, especially because TeenInk RAW is basically a synonym for expression, opportunity, and sharing.

From,
A loyal TeenInker.