Letters to Our Daughters 2024
The Finalists
Listen now to our seven finalists from schools in India, Mexico and the UK
Letters to Our Daughters 2024
In 2024, Mulberry Schools Trust commissioned Applied Stories to deliver their international lyrical letter writing competition, Letters to Our Daughters.
Young women aged 11-18 across twenty schools in the UK and internationally, were invited to submit their most powerful letters to a future daughter, real or imagined.
They were supported with a suite of online videos and writing exercises (still available below) created by Applied Stories and a team of professional writing mentors: Sharmila Chauhan, Erinn Dhesi, Fin Kennedy, Mel Pennant and Yusra Warsama.
We asked 2024's young women:
- If you had a daughter, what advice would you give her for today’s world?
- What message from your present would you send to her future?
- If you could write back to your younger self, what would you say?
- If you had a message for young women as a whole, past, present or future, what would it be?
- Could you write it with beauty, and power?
Participating schools sent first drafts, then received a workshop about re-writing before submitting second drafts. We received submissions from schools in India, Mexico, Kenya and Australia, as well as the UK.
The seven finalists audio recorded their letters, above, and are commemorated in a new Talking Portrait Gallery featuring their headshot and a QR code linking to their performance.
This exhibition forms a new permanent display in Mulberry School for Girls, as well as copies sent to each finalist's school.
A longlist of sixty of our favourite letters has been published in a new anthology, with an e-book for download available above.
Read a blog post by our artistic director Fin Kennedy, What can a letter writing contest tell us about girls today?
Playwrighting for Teachers
Are you an education professional?
You might also be interested in our new Playwrighting for Teachers course, fully online so accessible from anywhere, designed and led by our artistic director Fin Kennedy.
Brush up on your creative skills to better help your students devise drama, analyse play texts, and write their own scripts - all while writing your own.
Up to four teachers from one school can enrol for a single fee.
Find out more at www.playwrightingforteachers.co.uk
Letters to Our Daughters at the Global Girl Leading conference 2024
Free tutorial videos for schools - Videos 1-12
Video 1: Introduction with Fin Kennedy
Welcome to Letters to Our Daughters 2024
Video 2: Timeline and deadlines
How to take part
Video 3: Meet writer Sharmila Chauhan
A writer speaks about her career
Video 4: Defining 'letters' and 'daughters'
And starting to imagine your own...
Video 5: Finding your Theme and Message
Start generating your own ideas using Sharmila's Letter Map
Video 6: Fin's poem for Ruby
Fin shares a poem he wrote for his daughter's sixth birthday
Video 7: Analysing a 2018 letter
Sharmila Chauhan takes a closer look at Real by Maryam Naasir from the 2018 Letters to Our Daughters volume
Video 8: Filling in your Letter Map
Sharmila walks you through the four quadrants of the Letter Map and how they can help you build up what you want to say.
Video 9: In Conversation - part 1
Sharmila introduces actor and writer Yusra Warsama
Video 10: In Conversation - part 2
Sharmila speaks to Yusra Warsama about how locations can influence you, and affect your artistic voice as you grow up
Video 11: In Conversation - part 3
Sharmila speaks to Yusra about other art forms she loves, her own artistic journey, and finding your creative space as a young artist.
Video 12: In Conversation - part 4
Sharmila asks Yusra where she finds inspiration, then Yusra turns the tables and ask Sharmila about her life and career
Continue watching...
Click below to access a further set of 12 exclusive videos!
Free resources and worksheets
Free downloadable resources for schools accompanying the Letters To Our Daughters 2024 web series above.
Keep checking back! There will be new ones with each new video.
Frequently Asked Questions
Please reach us at letters@appliedstories.co.uk if you cannot find an answer to your question.
Letters to Our Daughters is aimed at girls aged 11-18, who attend one of the schools invited by Mulberry Schools Trust to take part.
Entry is by invitation from Mulberry Schools Trust and numbers capped for capacity reasons. However if your school would like to take part please email letters@appliedstories.co.uk, if any have dropped out it might be possible to accommodate others.
First draft letters must be received by 6pm on Friday 24 May 2024, and second drafts by Friday 19 July 2024.
Once your school has registered to take part, you will receive an email from Applied Stories about booking a 30-min 'online hello' with our writing tutors. After the first draft deadline on 24 May, all schools submitting five or more letters will be offered a free 90-min redrafting workshop at a time of your convenience.
If they make it through to the final eight, then yes. This will be a supported process with coaching from a professional theatre director. Performances will all take place at the Global Girl Leading conference in central London on Friday 11 October 2024.
If you feel inspired to write your own letter, then by all means. However please note that only letters from female students will be considered for publication or performance.
The eight finalists invited to perform their letters at the Global Girl Leading conference will also be professionally photographed, and their portrait printed onto a large canvas, with a QR code linking to an audio recording of their performance. All schools reaching the final will receive a free set of eight prints for display in their school.
Yes, Letters to Our Daughters is fully subsidised by Mulberry Schools Foundation and so is free to enter for all participating schools.