Reflective Teens is a group of young adults working for flourishing the creativity of teenagers and helping them prepare for the present and the future through proper utilization of their creative abilities. However, the long 8 years of RT had begun due to the love of writing one teenager had and his experiences related to his passion. Yusuf Munna had discovered his talent and enthusiasm for writing at a very young age, inspired by his father. He continued reading and writing for years working to develop his skills. He even went further to submit his writings in various media platforms like newspapers and magazines to be published. Despite being persistent and hopeful, all his efforts to publish his writing were being sent to vain. Being daunted and almost at the verge of losing his confidence, one of Yusufâs seniors introduced him to a writer in a newspaper who expressed his interest in Yusufâs writings. With no ray of hope, Yusuf sent an old writing from his enormous pile of work which he had previously submitted to innumerable institutions. To his surprise, this time his writing was immediately published; even though he had submitted similar writings to the same institution before. Yusuf Munna realized the power of connection for the first time. He spoke to a few of his writer friends from school only to realize that almost everyone had faced similar situations. This group of young teenagers came to acknowledge the fact that in mainstream media the path to success for new creative individuals is full of toilsome hurdles. In an effort to create more opportunities, at least for their fellows, these teenagers settled to form a web magazine. Albeit the technological boom in early 2010s, because of which Yusuf and his friends wanted to form a web magazine rather than a physical one, the technological advancement had not reached everyone at the same rate as today. Yusuf neither had the knowledge of forming a website nor any access to the internet; only the passion to do something right. With money he had saved from his allowance, Yusuf learned WordPress through YouTube in a nearby cybercafÊ and bought a domain to finally structure the web magazine in 2013. With the simple yet unyielding motto âof the Teens, by the Teens and for the Teensâ â adopted from Abraham Lincolnâs speech â the web magazine grew both quantitively and qualitatively. Besides writing, the magazine published other creative works like paintings, photographs etc. The magazine, which popularized in their school, began receiving submissions from peers in other schools; even a few from outside the country. However, the hard truth hit them one day that the web magazine was also based on connections and did not eliminate the root cause of the issue which was their initial aim. They moved out of the sole concentration on the web magazine and designed the very first program named RT Talks â a talk sessions. RT then received some media coverage that brought attention to them in terms of participants, supporters and volunteers. Through slow progress of the years, many new programs were included into the main structure of RT and many were excluded. After 8 years of hard-work, Reflective Teens is a proud team of a few short of 50 young adults with 3 successful main programs running throughout the year, a web magazine, a strong and supportive Board with prestigious figures and thousands of followers. Reflective Teens has been mentioned in a number of media platforms and has also reached many countries worldwide. They believe this is just the beginning of a flourishing journey in store for RT. Even through their success, they stay clear with their initial goal and constantly work to restructure programs in alignment with their core values. The programs of RT focus strictly on effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability among others. Such invaluable works are generated from a team of young individuals who are coherently working together while empathizing with each other and being open to new ideas or arguments. In their workspace, they are deep into being value driven and believe in decentralization of power, hence the lack of strict hierarchy in the team. Reflective Teens has big ambitions but are rooted to the ground with their motto and beliefs. Reflective Teens is a group formed by the realization of struggles of teenagers which is undauntingly working to form a thriving, equitable and inclusive world.
This is how I come up with the idea of Reflective TeensâÂ
