Share Your Story: Channel Kindness Submission Guidelines

April 11, 2020
This story took place in United States

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Calling all storytellers! If you have an aspirational + kind story you want to share, we’d love to hear from you! When you share your stories on Channel Kindness, you help remind others they’re not alone in their experiences and connect them with helpful information. We are so proud to start this year by announcing even more investment in young people’s stories, in your stories, by offering an appreciation payment of $50 to eligible contributors for their published piece on Channel Kindness. Check out out our FAQ Guide for Channel Kindness Contributors here and find our submission guidelines below, if you want to submit a story:

Who we are: Channel Kindness is a digital platform launched by Born This Way Foundation with the purpose of empowering young people to create a kinder and braver world. Through the power of storytelling, we hope to inspire our audience to spread kindness, encourage acceptance, and elevate the stories of good that happen in our communities each day.

What type of content we’re looking for: We love first-person essays with an aspirational tone. Just think: What hopeful or uplifting story do you want to share with others? We’re also looking for content that reports on the kind, compassionate, and brave individuals, organizations, and events that shape our communities!

Please review the following guidelines for a guest blog post:

  • Include a short title, a one-sentence description of your piece, and a draft Tweet + Facebook post that could be used to promote your story.
  • Cite all sources, using links within your article when relevant.
  • If writing about individuals other than yourself, please seek and provide us their permission to mention them in your story.
  • Please adhere to these best practices when discussing mental health (if relevant).
  • Attach a minimum of one relevant photo with attribution to accompany your piece. Please make sure permission is granted from the photographer and everyone that appears in the photo before use. Photos should be in a 4:3 ratio, 1024 x 768 pixels.
  • Include a picture of yourself and a short bio.

WRITTEN PIECES

  • Articles should be 400 to 800 words in length. Special exception will be given to pieces in which the extra length is considered necessary and purposeful to the overall piece.

VIDEO

  • Ideal Length: 2 to 5 minutes long
  • Please try to use a quality microphone
  • Record horizontally (across)
  • If you are using your iPhone to record, set your camera to the highest resolution possible

AUDIO

  • Ideal Length: 5 to 7 minutes long
  • Please try to use a quality microphone
  • Include a transcript of your audio file

Please avoid:

  • Profanity
  • Promotional content
  • Negative comments, hate speech, or discrimination of any kind
  • Political statements or attacks on any public figures
  • Descriptions of violence

Please submit your story here: https://forms.gle/kUtaSZk1wK5825EE9

If you have any questions, please consult our FAQ page, or feel free to ask at [email protected]!

*Due to the high volume of story submissions, we cannot respond personally to every submission. We encourage you however to stay connected with us via our social media accounts at @ChannelKindness.

Channel Kindness reserves the right to edit posts to ensure they are within the guest post guidelines. We also reserve the right to edit the post as needed for style, content, length, etc. By submitting a post to us, you are affirming that the content is original to you, the author, and has not appeared elsewhere online or in print. We reserve the right to modify, reproduce and distribute (or decline to publish) your material in any medium (now or hereafter existing) and in any manner or appropriate place.

Upon publication, your story will be told on ChannelKindness.org, across the Foundation’s social channels, and by a diverse network of partners.

We look forward to hearing from you!

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