Nobody really asks for your story until you've done something with it. Until you've come out the other side of something dramatic enough to have a lesson attached. While you're still in it, still figuring out what comes next, it doesn't count as a story worth telling. It's just your life.
That's where most of it actually is. Not in the resolution. In the middle, while it's still going. The thing someone said to you that you've thought about every week since. The decision you made without enough information and are still living with. The small, specific way your life looks right now that nobody outside of it would know to ask about. None of it needs to be resolved to be worth saying.
Tell Your Story is an open call. No required format, no theme, no lesson you have to have taken from any of it. Whatever you'd make if someone gave you a blank page and said: say what it's like. Write it, record it, draw it, film it. This is where it goes.
What Tell Your Story is
You make something in whatever format works for you and submit it through a short online form. Every submission is reviewed before anything goes up. Accepted pieces are published anonymously in the gallery on this site, and nothing goes live without your explicit consent. There's no theme, no length requirement, no rubric. The only requirement is that it's yours.
The pilot is running in partnership with Gibbs Memorial Library in Mexia. The library is the local hub, a place to get questions answered in person and, if you're under 18, where you'll pick up the consent form a parent or guardian needs to sign. Submission intake and the gallery are handled digitally through this site.
Submissions open October 5, 2026 and close November 30, 2026. Rolling publication in the gallery begins mid-October — accepted pieces go up as they're reviewed, not all at once.
Who this is for
If you're between 16 and 24 and you're in or around Mexia, this is for you. That's the whole requirement. Not for a specific kind of person, not for people who've already built something out of their experience. For anyone in that age range who has something they'd want to say if someone actually asked.
Any format counts:
- A piece of writing - a story, a reflection, a poem, or something in between
- An audio recording - spoken word, read aloud, a song, a voice memo shaped into something, whatever you can think of
- A short video - filmed on your phone is fine
- A photo or series of photos
- A drawing, painting, or other visual work, photographed and submitted digitally
You don't need to be a writer, and you don't need equipment you don't already have. A phone covers most formats. You don't need to have made things like this before, and you don't need to have your story figured out before you try. Start with whatever comes naturally.
How to participate
Make something
Write it, record it, photograph it, or draw it. This is your experience, your perspective, and your format. There's no prompt you're required to follow. Just make it something true to you.
Submit via the form
Fill out the submission form online. It takes about 5 minutes. You'll upload or link your piece and answer a few short questions about format and consent.
If you're under 18, pick up a consent form
Consent forms for participants under 18 are available at Gibbs Memorial Library in Mexia. A parent or guardian will need to sign before your submission can be published.
We review and publish with your permission
Every submission is reviewed before it goes up. If yours is accepted, it's published anonymously in the gallery. Nothing goes live without your explicit consent.
Submissions are reviewed on a rolling basis, so you won't be waiting until the end of the pilot to hear back. If your piece is accepted, you'll be contacted before anything goes live, and your confirmation is required before anything is published. If it isn't accepted, you'll hear that too.
Everything in the gallery is published anonymously. No name, no identifying information, nothing that connects the piece back to you, unless you specifically ask for attribution. You retain ownership of your work, and you can request that your submission be removed at any time.
Ready to submit?
If you've been sitting on something — the form takes about five minutes.
Submit Your Story Submissions open October 5, 2026See what's been shared
The gallery opens mid-October. Come back to see what others have made and shared! Writing, audio, video, and art from people in and around Mexia going through the same stretch of life will be here soon.
Tell Your Story is a collaboration between The Map to Adulthood and Gibbs Memorial Library in Mexia. If you're a community leader or organization thinking about running something like this in your own setting, there's a page with details on how the program works and what independent replication could look like. How the program works →