Writing competiton 2009

Our writing competition write to your 80 year old self was launched in commemoration of the 80th anniversary year of Anne Frank's birth. The competition has now closed and the winner has been chosen.

 WINNING ENTRY - Lauren 12 years old, from Edinburgh

Dear Lauren, aged 80,

It feels odd to be writing to someone that may or may not be on the receiving end, and it feels even stranger that I am writing this letter to myself! All I hope is that you have achieved all of the goals I have set you. That you pushed yourself harder and harder to create an outcome you didn’t believe you would be capable of achieving. A life well lived. I pray that now you smile and think that it is definitely what yours has been. Now I shall tell you the story of the life that I have wished for myself to have had, and I am almost certain that you will nod your head in agreement. As my goals are very difficult, I will narrow myself down to three main ones.
 
First things first. I’d love to be a journalist, and in the end have my own magazine whilst writing books for teenage girls. I love to write. That fact is probably the main reason I am writing this letter. One who is unable to enjoy the art of inscription would be unlikely to even try. Also, I would adore mountain climbing for charity. A great, rocky one, like Mount Everest. The feeling of achievement in that! Raise thousands of pounds for those less fortunate whilst having an amazing, but chilly, time. It would also decrease my fear of heights, which at the moment is at the highest level. And ultimately, I would like to have been able to have a child who grows to be ambitious like me, and reaches their dreams.
 
How I wonder daily what life will be like in the future. When I was a little younger, I thought there would be flying bubble cars, as now technology seems to be going through the roof. But now I think of other, more important happenings. Has poverty finally taken over the world, or has it gone to a minimum? How has the environment been going, or are you unable to read this letter because the entire Earth has come to an untimely death? Trying to visualise a world in coming time is so hard as currently it is rocking backwards and forwards like a ship far at a stormy sea. I must include one point about technology: I have always wondered if you would be able to see someone whilst in a call with them in total 3D, just as if they were standing right in front of you. It seems impossible now, but at the speeding rate of new inventions it may just occur.
 
I pray that you have achieved these goals. And I shall stick by my opinion of them definitely being achievements. I hope life has been an amazing journey for you.
 
Yours Sincerely,
Lauren, aged 12

Anne's Ambitions

In her diary Anne wrote about growing up and about her hopes for the future. She talked about the war being over, the first thing that she would do when she came out of hiding and how she had ambitions of becoming a film star or a writer.

"I’m not so set on a bourgeois life as Mother and Margot. I’d like to spend a year in Paris and London learning the languages and studying art history." 

"I still have visions of gorgeous dresses and fascinating people. As I’ve told you many times before, I want to see the world and do all kinds of exciting things, and a little money won’t hurt!"

Anne Frank, 8 May 1944