How we review submissions
Moderation policy for stories and blog posts.
Every teen story and every blog submission is read by a person before anyone else sees it. This page explains the standard being applied, so it is a policy and not a mood.
Categories we publish
Each submission is sorted into a category first. If it does not fit one, it is not published.
| Category | We publish | We hold back |
|---|---|---|
| Made it through | A hard stretch that has some distance on it, and what actually helped. | A crisis happening right now. We reply with support resources instead of publishing. |
| Still figuring it out | An honest, unresolved story that does not present harm as a solution. | Anything that reads as a goodbye, a plan, or a call for urgent help. |
| One thing that worked | A specific, safe, repeatable strategy — sleep, scripts, study changes, asking for help. | Restriction, purging, self-injury, pain, substances, or 'push through it' advice. |
| Telling an adult | How the conversation went, including when it went badly. | Identifying a specific adult, teacher, school or family member. |
| Not a fit | — | Promotion, links, homework help, arguments, or anything not about teen emotional life. |
Tone standard
Published tone sounds like this
- Written in the person's own voice, not performed or polished into a lecture
- Specific about what happened and what helped, so a reader can use it
- Leaves room for the reader to feel differently — no 'just do this and you'll be fine'
- Honest about limits: 'this helped me' rather than 'this cures anxiety'
- Kind to the writer's past self, and to whoever reads it next
Always removed
- Method, amount or detail about self-harm, suicide, eating restriction or substances
- Diagnosis of yourself or anyone else, or medical/medication advice
- Names, schools, handles, locations, photos or anything identifying
- Anything aimed at a real person: pile-ons, call-outs, insults or revenge
- Despair framed as the only truth, with no path out and no support mentioned
- Content that romanticises suffering, competition over who has it worse, or 'thinspo'-style material
The review steps
Same order, every submission.
- 1Submitted. The writer sees a 'waiting for review' status. Nothing is public.
- 2Safety read first. Any sign of current risk means we reach out with resources and do not publish.
- 3Category check. The piece is placed in one of the categories above, or returned as not a fit.
- 4Tone check. Voice, specificity and safety of the advice — against the lists on this page, not a mood.
- 5Light edit. Typos, identifying details and unsafe techniques are removed. Meaning is never rewritten.
- 6Decision. Approved and published with a topic link, or declined with a reason by email if you asked for one.
- 7Anything published can be taken down later, by us or at the writer's request.
Safety, privacy and appeals
If someone may be unsafe
A submission that suggests current risk is never published. We respond with crisis resources and encourage telling a trusted adult.Urgent help
Privacy
Display names are never shown on stories; everything publishes as “A teen”. Identifying details are cut even when the writer included them on purpose.Privacy policy
Appeals and removals
Disagree with a decision, or want your published story taken down? Email hello@emotionalteen.com and it is handled within a few days. Removal requests are always granted.
Reviews are carried out by the EmotionalTeen team. Moderators are not clinicians, and moderation is not a crisis service or a substitute for professional care. Turnaround is usually a few days; there is no guaranteed response time.