{"id":839,"date":"2025-11-21T16:33:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T21:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/?p=839"},"modified":"2025-11-21T16:33:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T21:33:27","slug":"yab-think-tank-and-flynn-kiers-launch-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/yab-think-tank-and-flynn-kiers-launch-party\/","title":{"rendered":"YAB Think Tank and Flynn Kier&#8217;s Launch Party"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Saturday, November 8th was a big day for Writopia Lab\u2019s virtual space. The Youth Advisory Board first discussed the current reading crisis, and then, in a separate event, we celebrated one of our own\u2019s publishing success! (High school junior from Montana, Flynn Kier and proud member of Writopia Lab\u2019s Creative Portfolio program, published their first book through Kindle Publishing, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Three-May-Reign-F-Winters\/dp\/B0FZ7179P8?s=books\"><em>Three May Reign<\/em><\/a> under the pseudonym F.K. Winters.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At 3 PM, The Youth Advisory Board hosted another Think Tank for teens: <em>Why Isn\u2019t Anybody Reading Anymore?<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Executive Officers Zoe Becker, Mason Bronner, Sofia Hernandez, and Annika Lamberti prepared a slide show full of topics for discussion. They tackled questions such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>To what degree is the education system more broadly responsible for the current reading crisis?<\/li><li>Are we raising too much alarm over this issue? Are continuous changes in reading habits just a reflection of a technologically advancing society?<\/li><li>How does reading factor into your writing? Why do you think <em>writers<\/em> aren\u2019t reading anymore?<\/li><li>Where does Book Tok fit into all of this? Are we facing an epidemic of parasocial relationships with literary figures?<\/li><li>How do screens and social media affect reading motivation?<\/li><li>In an age of such accessibility, why isn\u2019t anybody accessing literary materials?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Their solution is to take inspiration from music sensation Laufey and create a Writopia Book Club on DISCORD. So stay tuned!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At 5:30 PM, we had a bevy of teens come and support the launch of Flynn\u2019s novel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Three-May-Reign-F-Winters\/dp\/B0FZ7179P8?s=books\"><em>Three May Reign<\/em><\/a> with a reading and author Q&amp;A.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Trin, the leader of a criminal group called the Messengers, gets wind of a plot to eradicate crime in an alternate Victorian London, she enlists the help of two fellow crooks, Marion and Red. Marion is a shapeshifter who loves nothing more than chaos, manipulation, and a lacy pink dress. Red is the transgender son of a noble family, living a double life as the leader of the Scarlettes, the largest and cruelest gang in London. Despite mutual animosity, impossible-seeming obstacles, and an unknown force meddling in their affairs, the three uncover a secret that could grant them power beyond their wildest dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Together, they attempt a daring heist to take it for themselves, and in the process realize that everything they thought they knew about the world they live in, and about one another, was wrong.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this article:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-839\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/yab-think-tank-and-flynn-kiers-launch-party\/?share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-839\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/yab-think-tank-and-flynn-kiers-launch-party\/?share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-pocket\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-pocket sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/yab-think-tank-and-flynn-kiers-launch-party\/?share=pocket\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Pocket\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-reddit\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-reddit sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/yab-think-tank-and-flynn-kiers-launch-party\/?share=reddit\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Reddit\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-print\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-print sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/yab-think-tank-and-flynn-kiers-launch-party\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to print\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to print (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saturday, November 8th was a big day for Writopia Lab\u2019s virtual space. The Youth Advisory Board first discussed the current reading crisis, and then, in a separate event, we celebrated one of our own\u2019s publishing success! (High school junior from Montana, Flynn Kier and proud member of Writopia Lab\u2019s Creative Portfolio program, published their first &hellip;<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this article:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-839\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/yab-think-tank-and-flynn-kiers-launch-party\/?share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-839\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/yab-think-tank-and-flynn-kiers-launch-party\/?share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-pocket\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-pocket sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/yab-think-tank-and-flynn-kiers-launch-party\/?share=pocket\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Pocket\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-reddit\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-reddit sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/yab-think-tank-and-flynn-kiers-launch-party\/?share=reddit\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Reddit\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-print\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-print sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/yab-think-tank-and-flynn-kiers-launch-party\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to print\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to print (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9aRpX-dx","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":495,"url":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/writopia-publishing-lab-contributors-2024\/","url_meta":{"origin":839,"position":0},"title":"Writopia Publishing Lab Contributors 2023-2024","date":"May 30, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Congratulations to all Writopia writers selected for publication this past school year in this year's Writopia Publishing Lab's books. Connecting Across Cultures: A Collection of Writing by Ten Jewish and Muslim American Teens Zoe BeckerDania BresslerLeila CisseMahnaz Daud-BasraiHeba ElkouraichiZara HaiIlana HorwitzLeonid MetlitskyMillie NathansonAnniyah Rizvi \"Loved Your Essay!\" - The Admissions\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Newsletter&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":950,"url":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/my-first-debate-tournament-as-specialty-programs-coordinator\/","url_meta":{"origin":839,"position":1},"title":"Rising to the Occasion at My First Debate Tournament","date":"April 10, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Written by Imani Parker, Specialty Programs Coordinator On March 14th, 2026, thirteen Writopia debaters bravely logged onto Zoom to take part in an abbreviated World Schools Style debate tournament alongside our partners at Debate Spaces. They competed internationally, going up against debaters from different parts of the world.\u00a0 It was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Staff Voices&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Image_20260410_122925_759.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":549,"url":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/writopias-international-debate-tournament-february-1st-2025\/","url_meta":{"origin":839,"position":2},"title":"Writopia's International Debate Tournament - February 1st 2025","date":"February 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Written by Shanille Martin, Head of Writopia Lab's Debate Program Writopia alongside our partner's Debate Spaces hosted another one of our international debate tournaments on Saturday, February 1st, 2025. Rounds began at 8 AM Eastern Time. Debaters argued topics like whether voting should be mandatory, the sale of unhealthy foods\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Events&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-64.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":408,"url":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/national-newsletter-2021\/","url_meta":{"origin":839,"position":3},"title":"National Newsletter 2021","date":"July 1, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Pictured are three of our many long-term Writopians who graduate from high school this year! Student Publication Highlights 2020-2021 Abey Weitzman won a Scholastic Silver Medal for his senior portfolio, \u201cDisability.\u201d Watch his powerful graduation speech below in which he mentions Writopia Lab.Analia Rivera had a piece accepted to Alphabet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Newsletter&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Screen-Shot-2021-07-01-at-10.42.39-AM-edited.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":310,"url":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/foreword-to-the-wricampia-horror-anthology-2019-by-jacquelyn-stolos-program-coordinator\/","url_meta":{"origin":839,"position":4},"title":"The Horror! : On Encouraging Young Writers to Dig into Fear by Jacquelyn Stolos, Program Coordinator","date":"October 15, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Jacquelyn Stolos is a new staff member at Writopia Lab in Los Angeles As a new staff member at Writopia, I was thrilled to spend two weeks at WriCampia teaching, thinking, and exploring alongside the world\u2019s most literary campers last August--what a dream! And more, I had the opportunity to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Staff Voices&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/PatchLargeWhite.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":352,"url":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/follow-their-lead-a-year-of-teen-leadership\/","url_meta":{"origin":839,"position":5},"title":"Follow Their Lead: A Year of Teen Leadership","date":"June 22, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Madeline Taylor & Kimberly Faith Waid\u00a0 At our national staff retreat in 2019, our full-time staff came together to focus on teen leadership and the ways we could empower our young writers within our community and beyond. We\u2019d run programs in the past, and we were ready to take\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Staff Voices&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Pride-2019-group-photo-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":840,"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions\/840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}