Essay Winners
2026

Hurrah! Here they are: our amazing essay winners 2026!

What an amazing year! Our annual Kids World Travel Guide Essay Competition drew a fantastic 527 valid entries from young writers in 57 countries around the world!

This time, the participants took us on a wonderful journey around the world and shared truly fabulous stories about a wide variety of landmarks that mean something special to them.

From the ancient Parthenon in Greece and the excitement of a baseball game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in South Korea to the sweet memories of a family home and the very personal spaces that create landmarks in their own right, from a wave-shaped rock formation in Australia and the green spaces of New York to the majestic Alhambra, each essay offered a different perspective on our amazing planet.

What awesome creativity and talent is out there, we thoroughly enjoyed reading each of your fascinating stories! 

Congratulations to our exceptional prize-winners and a heartfelt Thank You to the participants who contributed to making our 11th edition of the competition another remarkable success!

Our essay competition winners this year celebrate a wonderful mix of personal memories and family connections, cultural heritage and the wonders of Mother Nature. Many essays reminded us rightfully that a landmark does not have to be famous to be meaningful but are special places that go deeper. As so often, the most valuable memories are the ones that show us why a special place matters! 

And again, we were very impressed by the diversity of writing styles: some essays were more factual or research-based while others were richly imaginative, creative and some truly emotional.

We are very proud to have witnessed the growth of so many wonderful young talents over the years! Thank you very much for all the love and passion you share in inspiring other students to share their stories - you all make this world a better place! 

And for those of you who would like to continue supporting our project, please let us know, so we can add you to our junior jurors listing for next year! 

Who are our 2026 winners?

This year, we had an extremely tough time choosing our winning entries. There were sooo many awesome essays to go through but we decided on having again one winner and two runners-up for each age group plus seven outstanding essays from our groups of finalists.

Even if you did not make it onto our published essays list, you all can be so very proud of your achievements! We truly admire your creativity, and all your hard work certainly shone through!

And now… drumroll, please! We are excited to announce the 2026 winners in each category!

Essay Competition Winners
2026:
"Landmarks - Wonders of My World"

Please take note that we will be adding links to all essays listed here by next week. Each winner and runner-up as well as all finalists will have their own dedicated page on our website!

Thank you for your wonderful essays! All these excellent essays will make a great reading and will be a lovely inspiration for your next writing project!

Merit award certificates will be sent out to the students with commended entries as listed above. Participation certificates will also be provided to all who requested it within the next months.

Our competition statistics also will be published within the next week. So stay tuned!

Keep honing your writing skills while exploring the world around you. There is nothing better than connecting and sharing ideas, experiences and insights about our world!

Now here is more info about our previous competition winners of 2025:

Essay Competition Winners
2025:
'My World - My Future'

Age Category: 8 - 11 years

Winner

Runners-up

Merit

Age Category: 12 - 15 years

Winner

Runners-up

Merit

Do you want to know more about our competitions?

Keep an eye out for our next competition which will be announced in March 2027.

Here are our previous competition statistics as well as the winners of our previous competitions:

Essay Competition Winners
2024: 
'My Culture - Who I Am"

Age Category: 8 - 11 years

Winner

Runners-up

All winners have been notified via email about their success in the essay competition. Prizes and certificates have been dispatched. Please check your emails.

This year we again added a special mentions category for several outstanding essays of our finalists. 

Special Mention

Age Category: 12 - 15 years

Winners

Runners-up

All winners have been notified via email about their success in the essay competition. Prizes and certificates have been despatched. Please check your emails.

This year we again added a special mentions category for several outstanding essays of our finalists. 

Special Mention

Thank you for your wonderful essays! All these excellent essays will make a great reading and are an inspiration!

Merit award certificates for "special mention" essays will be sent to the participants by the beginning of December.

Keep honing your writing skills while exploring the world around you, there is nothing better than sharing ideas, experiences and insights!

Here is our competition statistic and infographic for the 2024 competition:

Now, if you are interested in our previous competition winners, check out their essays in the last years' listings below:

Essay Competition Winners
2023: 
'Wildlife - Nature's Stars"

Age Category: 8 - 11 years

Winner

Runners-up

Special Mention

Age Category: 12 -15 years

Winner

Runners-up

Special Mention

Competition Winners 2022:
"My Life"

Age Category: 8 - 11 years

Winner

Runners-up

Special Mention

• Hiranga Bandara Suraweera: "My Life" (Trinity College Kandy, Sri Lanka) - English as Second Language, Home language Sinhala
  
• Naurah Afiqah Mohd Naseem: "A Day of My Life" (Sekolah Kebangsaan Putrajaya, Malaysia) - English as Second Language
• Daphne Tsu: "My School Life" (Macau Anglican College, China) - English as Second Language, Home Language Chinese
• Lizzie Xu: "The Flowing Rhythm of My Life" (St George’s British International School Rome, Italy) - English as Second Language, Home Language Chinese
• Kanyisola Omogbai: "Scrabble" (Topaz Comprehensive College Lagos, Nigeria) – English as First Language

Age Category: 12 - 15 years

Winner

Runners-up

Special Mention

• Aelfred Bowden: "Half a year in Japan" (Aberdeen/ UK) – English as First Language, Home Language Mandarin Chinese
• Pei Yuan Erica Yip: "Zongzi (dumpling)" (Foon Yew High School Johor Bahru, Malaysia) - Home Language Chinese
• Carys Lee Hui Ern: "My Life" (SMJK Chan Wa Seremban- Malaysia) – English as First Language
• Benedict Okoroafor: "Personal Activities" (Dority International School Abayi, Nigeria) – Home Language Igbo, English as Second Language
• Natalie Treu: "Life As A Resident Sibling" (Homeschooled/ USA) - English as First Language 

Competition Winners 2021:
"Hope"

Age Category: 8 - 11 years

Winner

Runners-up

Special Mention

• Carissa Handrian: "Beauty Within Our Archipelago" (Bina Bangsa School, Indonesia)
• Rithikha Shree Sivananthan: "My Favourite Quote: A Beautiful Mind Makes a Beautiful Life" (Pusat Tuisyen Alfa Matriks, Malaysia)
• Avni Singh: "Live in Hope, Love to Laugh" (Homeschooling, India)
• Haram Cho: "Power of Hope" (International School ParkCity Hanoi, Vietnam)
• Lizzie Xu: "My Eternal Hope" (St George's British International School Rome, Italy)

Age Category: 12 - 15 years

Winner

Runners-up

Special Mention

• Corrine Yang: "The Power of Hope" (Merivale High School, Canada)
• Cojitha Senanayake: "The Beach: My Haven, My Hope"(St Thomas' College, Sri Lanka)
• Angelos Kandilas: "Hope is the dream of an awake person" (Music School of Athens, Greece)
• Akriti Lamba: "Anne Frank - A Story Of Hope" (Our Lady Queen of the Missions School, India)
• Nischal Samrat: "Life, an Opportunity" (Sudarshan Vidya Mandir, India)

Competition Winners 2020:
"My Country"

Age Category: 8 - 11 years

Winner

Runners-up

Special Mention

• Ihor Kravchenko: "The Country of My Dreams" (Saint Joseph School, Lebanon)
  
• Srikoustubh Karanam: "My Country - Invincible India" (Overseas Family School, Singapore)
• Rizqin Nasuha Mohamed Ridzuan: "The Country of My Dreams" (Artistic Strategies Academy, Singapore)
• Parker Hadley: "Florida to Alaska: A Big Change" (Raven Homeschool, USA)
• Mitchell Kuhn: "Cape Vultures" (Homeschool, South Africa)
• Matthew Borg: "About My Home Country" (Stella Maris College, Malta)
• Leila El Baba: "Japan - The Country of My Dreams" (Šiauliai Centro Primary School, Lithuania) 
• Regina Chiu: "My Host Country Singapore" (Saint Joseph's Institution International School, Singapore)

Age Category: 12 -15 years

Winner

Runners-Up

Special Mention

• Luca Ciripitca: "Moldova" (Sutton Grammar School, UK)
• Ashley Tay: "My Unique Home" (CHIJ St Nicholas Girls' School, Singapore)
• Alina Kiedos: "Romanies in Poland" (English Language Studio, Poland)
• Tana Tahira Valmond: "My Country Dominica" (Dominica Grammar School, Dominica)
• Muhammad Imad Khan: "Trees" (Islamia Children Academy, Pakistan)
• Pranavkrishna Bharanidharan: "The Crossroads of My Life" (California Montessori Project, USA) - What a wonderful achievement now in the Senior Category! Read his winning essay from 2019 in the Junior Category here.

Essay Competition Winners
2019: 'The Gift of Languages'

Age Category: 8-11 years

Winner

Runner-Up

Age Category 12-15 years

Winner

Runner-Up

Special Prize

Essay Competition Winners
2018: 'My Favourite Festival'

Age Category: 8 - 11 years

Winner

Runner-Up

Age Category: 12 -15 years

Winner

Runner-Up

We really enjoyed all your entries, so please do not give up on your dream if you want to become a writer but your essay was not chosen for publication this time.

Never give up! Keep on writing and honing your skills and join in our next competition! ... And for some of you we will have a special treat, so keep our site bookmarked and you might hear from us regarding a special publication of your entry on another page on this site. Cheers!

Essay Competition Winners
2017: 'My Favourite Holiday'

Age Category: 8 - 11 years

Winner

Runners-Up

Age Category: 12 -15 years

Winner

Runners-Up

All winners will be notified via email about their success in the essay competition to claim their prizes which then will be dispatched in the coming week. Congratulations again! Well done! Keep on writing!

Essay Competition Winners
2016: 'My Country'

Age Category: 8 - 11 years

Winner

Runners-up

Age Category: 12 - 15 years

Winner

Runner-up

---

Image credits on essay competition winners page: Shutterstock.com and own images

Back from Essay Competition Winners to Kids-World-Travel-Guide Homepage

Join us on Facebook

Keep us Bookmarked!