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By definition, most teenagers do the kinds of things teenagers do. If you do something even a little out of the ordinary, it can make for a unique and entertaining essay. Admissions officers read countless essays about soccer and volunteering. They don’t read many about jigsaw puzzles or training dogs.

• What do you do—big or small—that’s a little different?
• What do you do that your friends think is either cool or weird?
• Are there non-teenager-activities you do with friends or your family?
• Do you do anything that doesn’t conform to traditional gender roles (which we think are highly overrated!)?
• Do you cook or bake or sew? Write poetry? Clean up beaches? Build miniature cars? Perform science experiments? Basically, anything that 90% of your peers wouldn’t consider doing.

Some of the best essays come from the most unlikely Story Starters. Spoons, jigsaw puzzles, killing a squirrel, playing Beowulf in English class, and hanging out in a supermarket parking lot are some of our favorites. It took time for students to find some of these topics, and a couple came up by chance in conversations with their mentors. Here are questions to help you dig around where topics often hide: 

• Who do you have close relationships with?
• What do you do with your family? These can be things at home, outside activities, annual outings…anything.
• Where have you traveled, and what happened when you were traveling? Have you been somewhere that sticks in your mind?
• What communities or groups or clubs do you belong to?

What are you proud of? It can be an accomplishment, a way of living, an attitude, your family, a community you belong to, a place, etc.

We all have memories that matter to us—the things that stick in our minds. They may be stories you tell over and over to others or ones that you keep to yourself. They may be positive memories, or they may be painful.

What do you remember?

What do you care about? It could something personal and private. It could be an individual. It could be an idea, a place, or a cause.

Sometimes, you can discover what you care about by paying attention to what triggers strong emotions, whether they’re positive or negative.

Nothing? Like, nothing?

Yeah, every now and then someone writes a great essay about essentially nothing.

If you’ve ever watched Seinfeld—one of the most successful comedy shows ever—you may remember it was “a show about nothing.”

Like Ryan, who sits in a car with his friends at the supermarket parking lot.

Or Nick, who talks with his wrestling coach and his grandfather, and describes his bedroom.

What it’s-really-nothing details about your life, activities, or events pop to mind?

There are countless questions you can ask yourself to bring Story Starters to mind. Here are some we’ve adapted from colleges and universities:

• Where have you been a leader? Maybe you didn’t have an official position or role, but you still influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time.
• Where are you creative? Everyone has a creative side, even though it’s not always artistic. Maybe yours is in solving problems, thinking innovative thoughts, or imagining how the world could be.
• What gets you engaged intellectually? What subjects do you like in school? How do they show up outside of the classroom?
• What do you notice that other people don’t? How do you see or think about the world?

We all fail. It’s part of being human. Look long enough and you can probably find places you’ve failed, but or small, in school, relationships, activities, ideas, art projects…

Your failures may have been public or private, funny or tragic. They help us learn and make us human.

• What big, dramatic failures have you had?
• What small, subtle failures have you had?
• In areas where you have a lot of success, what were some failures you encountered on the way? They could be big or small, one-time or repeated.

Common App Prompt: The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

What was a time when you challenged a belief or an idea? What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?

• What intellectual ideas have you challenged in school, at home, at work, or someplace else?
• What religious, political, philosophical, or ethical beliefs have you challenged?
• What actions, statements or policies have you challenged?
• When have you stood up to other people? (They could be peers, parents, teachers, authority figures, strangers, etc.)

Common App Prompt: Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?

Coalition App Prompt: Has there been a time when you’ve had a long-cherished or accepted belief challenged? How did you respond? How did the challenge affect your beliefs?

What problems have you solved, or do you want to solve?

• What do you care about in your own life, your community, or the world? Where are the problems, weaknesses, or opportunities in that area?
• What are you most curious about?
• Imagine the future the way you’d like to see it. What’s in the way?

Common App Prompt: Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma – anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.

Discuss an accomplishment or event that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood.

• Did you go through a ceremony to initiate you into adulthood?
• Have you taken on new responsibilities?
• Was there a challenge you needed to handle?
• Did you accomplish something that showed your maturity, skill, or perspective?

Common App Prompt: Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

Coalition App Prompt: What is the hardest part of being a teenager now? What’s the best part? What advice would you give a younger sibling or friend (assuming they would listen to you)?

We contribute to the world in ways big and small, often when we don’t notice we’re even doing it.

• Where have you made a difference, big or small? It could be for a person, a group of people, a place…any way in which you made the world a little (or a lot) better.
• Where would you like to make a difference? Here, you can think really big—even globally if you want. Or you can keep it close-to-home.

Coalition App Prompt: Describe a time when you made a meaningful contribution to others in which the greater good was your focus. Discuss the challenges and rewards of making your contribution.

Sometimes we lose track of time because we’re so engaged with what we’re doing. What are those things for you?

• What do you talk about with your friends, family, or teachers?
• What can you go on and on about? What are you deeply curious about, or what do you love to learn?
• Maybe, you’re curious about a lot of things. Maybe you love and have mastered skills and topics. What are some of those?

Common App Prompt: Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?