Chicken Soup for the Soul just announced a new call for submissions, for the upcoming edition of their best-selling Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul.

This new edition, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the first edition, is likely to have quite a lot of marketing and promotion put into it, as it is one of the big anchors of the Chicken Soup brand. All of which is to say, if you want to be in a bestselling book, then this is a big opportunity.

The caveat: They only want contributions from writers 35 and under.

The new edition of this book will feature all 25 new stories.

According to their call for submissions:

We are excited to announce the 25th anniversary of the release of the Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul book. What an amazing 25 years it has been! This book title has sold millions of copies and is still relevant today. In honor of the 25th anniversary, we are rereleasing the original Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul, and we are adding 25 new stories!

Chicken Soup for the Soul has always provided support to teenagers from all over the world. We’re collecting up-to-date stories written by teens and men and women under age 35. We want these stories to represent how the world is today for teenagers, and we’re hoping for stories about the pandemic, technology, social media, and other modern-day concerns.

We’re looking for everything, from serious to silly. What was your experience like as a teenager? Did you fit in with the popular crowd, or were you left out? What did you learn about yourself that you can pass on to help another teenager who is growing up today? What kind of humorous or embarrassing things happened to you when you were that age?

Your stories and poems should be written in the first person about something that happened to you or someone close to you. Your stories must be true. Do not change any facts. If you want to change someone’s name or use a pen name, that’s fine, but you need to tell us exactly what you changed. Please try to keep your stories under 1200 words.

Chicken Soup for the Soul regularly publishes a variety of anthologies every year. They’re currently seeking contributors for seven anthologies. You can get a full list of their calls for submissions here.

To learn more about contributing, read this page.