Lafayette Girls Organize Writing Contest For Middle School Students

Uma Unni and Linnae Johansson have discovered the joys of writing at an young age.

Now they want to spread that excitement to other people in their age group.

Unni, a 14-year-old freshman at Acalanes High School, and Johansson, a 13-year-old eighth grader at Stanley Middle School, have started a contest for young writers and photographers in their hometown of Lafayette.

The two friends formed a group called Lafayette Youth Arts Society. The organization’s first activity is the writing and photography contest.

It’s open to students from 6th to 8th grade who live in Lafayette or attend Lafayette schools.

The story or photograph must be original work. The story needs to be 1,000 words or less.

The contest opens Friday, Nov 15. Entries will be accepted until Jan. 15.

Among the prizes are $300 for first place, $150 for second place and $100 for third.

The two girls found sponsors. They also have organized a book fair at the Barnes & Noble bookstore in downtown Walnut Creek on Nov. 24 and 25 to raise money for their contest.

They also found judges, including Daniel Handler, who has written under the name Lemony Snickett.

Both girls say it’s important for young students to learn to write well, no matter what profession they may want to go into. They also want them to discover the same pleasure in writing that they have.

“It’s a form of expression. It’s an art,” said Unni.

Unni discovered her enthusiasm for writing during the summer when she was 11. Her mother didn’t want her watching television too much, so she agreed to pay her a penny a word for anything she wrote.

Unni wrote so much the pay eventually became a penny for every five words.

“After awhile she stopped paying me, but I kept writing because I discovered how much fun it could be,” said Unni.

Johansson got the writing bug in 4th grade when her teacher told her how much she liked a story Johansson had written.

Both girls say they like writing because they can dive into a fantasy world where their characters can do and be whatever the authors decide.

“You can do anything,” said Johansson. “You can solve mysteries. You can have super powers.”

“It gives you a character to do something you wouldn’t get to do in real life,” added Unni.

The two girls said they started the contest to encourage others to write but also to give students who aren’t into sports an alternative.

“There aren’t any writing tournaments and there aren’t any writing teams,” said Unni.

“It’s an opportunity,” added Johansson, “to show Lafayette doesn’t revolve around sports.”

Unni got some recognition herself recently. She won a Silver Award in a writing contest organized by the Royal Commonwealth Society. The Lafayette youngster placed in the top 6 percent of the 11,000 entries from 50 countries that were submitted.

The two girls add the contest has given them some valuable experience on how to organize an event, how to find sponsors and how to speak publicly.

Johansson plans to go from class to class at Stanley Middle to spread word of the contest. Both girls say the community has been quite supportive so far.

“Everyone has been enthusiastic,” said Johansson.

At the moment, neither girl plans to be a full-time writer when they are adults. Both say they’ll write on the side.

Unni would like to be a computer programmer or computer scientist. Johansson wants to be an engineer, like her father.