50 Unique Journal Prompts for Teens

Looking for ways to make your teens get creative in their writing? Try these prompts to allow them to express their writing chops.

• If you could only eat your favorite food for 10 days, how would your perception of that food change? Would you get sick of it? What about 30 days?
• Imagine one day all the cars in the world just disappeared; how would your life change? What would you do differently?
• You went to the zoo and realized tigers can talk to you. What do you do? How would just that one unique feature change your life or goals?
• Imagine that you suddenly grew 5 inches. What would this small change mean in your life? Would it make you average? Would it make you tall among your classmates or friends?
• Imagine that your last dream was real. What would it change?
• You woke up this morning and could speak fluent Spanish. What would you do?
• What is one word that is important to you? It can be a name or just a random word. Why is that word important to you?
• If you could be an animal or bird, what would you be? Why? What about that animal speaks to you?
• Your best friend is moving in 24 hours. You can do anything you want together. What would your day be full of?
• Who was your childhood hero? How has that changed now? What caused your hero to change?

Social justice is a big issue when it comes to unique journal prompts for teens. Take a look at the issues in the world around you through these prompts.

• Why is it important to take action against things that you feel are wrong?
• How hard is it to stand up for someone else? Does it make a difference if you are surrounded by others who are just watching it happen?
• Why does it only take one person to make a change?
• How can you positively impact just one other person’s life?
• Why is it possible for genocides to happen?
• What is one small change that you could make that makes a larger impact on the world?
• How has racism or prejudices affected or changed you?
• Imagine having blue eyes was negative, brown was positive, and any other color suspicious. How would this affect you? How would it affect everyone around you?
• Imagine that 20% of the population carried a deadly disease spread by just being near them, but you had no idea who. What would you do to ensure that you didn’t give or get the disease? What should everyone else in the world do?
• If someone gave you $1,000 dollars, but you could only spend it on others. Who would you spend it on and why?

Going beyond just external features, it’s important for teens to look at the positive aspects of themselves. Allow teens to do some self-exploration through these prompts.

• What is the best feature of your personality?
• What do other people like about you? Why does it make you unique?
• If everyone looked exactly the same, how differently would beauty be defined?
• How do you define perfection? Why is perfection not attainable?
• How does even your worst physical feature make you unique?
• Why does photoshop and filters like SnapChat lead to unrealistic expectations?
• What does ‘you can’t judge a book by its cover’ mean to you?
• If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be and why?
• If art, music, and creativity were banned or regulated, how would the world become a less colorful place?
• Why is laughter important? How does the person that makes you laugh bring joy to your life?

Getting silly can be fun too. It’s especially fun if you add art to the mix. Take these creative writing journal prompts for teens to keep it fun.

• Imagine that you were the subject in your favorite painting. How did you become the subject?
• Describe what it would be like to move around in your favorite piece of art.
• If you could create a painting of your mood right now, what colors would you use and why?
• If you were a piece of art, what would you be? Describe yourself in detail.
• How are all the pieces of your past a mosaic that creates you?
• What pop culture piece of art are you? Why?
• How can you make food art? Is a can of soup art?
• Are you abstract art or realism?
• If you were drawn as an animal, what animal would you be?
• If you were to become the silly sidekick in your favorite comic or graphic novel, how would you change the story?

Make journal writing a peaceful and meditative time by checking out these writing prompts.

• Yin and yang represent two sides or forces. What do these forces mean to you?
• Why is it important to take a peaceful moment every day or just spend time clearing your mind of negativity?
• Look at your biggest challenge this week. What is one thing that you did right during your challenge?
• Why is it important to look at the positives in a negative situation?
• Describe how you feel in your favorite place.
• Why is it important to stop and smell the roses?
• When is one moment in the last week where you felt truly peaceful?
• Where do you feel at most peace?
• Why can a hug be healing?
• How does someone standing next to you or holding your hand make you feel less alone?

Journal prompts for teens are a great way to really allow students to push their self-expression and explore the world around them in a safe place. Challenge your teens to try writing daily with a new prompt. You can even use these as part of a creative writing lesson plan. You can also use high school writing prompts as journal prompts. Just don’t forget to have fun with it.