Discover LEAP, our literary journal for girls who are loud, empowered, accepted and proud.

“Behind the story I tell is the one that I don’t. Behind the story you hear is the one I wish I could make you hear,” wrote Dorothy Allison, author of the iconic coming of age novel Bastard Out of Carolina, which we read and discuss during Center for Story & Witness’s Stories We Tell testimonial writing workshops. 

Dorothy’s words speak to the very spirit of LEAP, our teen-focused literary journal. Originally created by Chicago-area graduates of our Stories We Tell program for girls ages 15-18,  the inaugural issue of LEAP features poetry, memoir, creative nonfiction, and visual art that speaks to all that is beautiful, painful, and complicated about growing up in Chicago. Special editions of LEAP have featured the art and writing of refugee girls from across the African continent, from young women at Chicago’s Cook County Temporary Detention Center, and from students at Chicago’s Young Women’s Leadership Charter School. 

Our LEAP writers remind us that behind every social injustice there is a deeply personal story – and a powerful young person ready to tell it. The stories in LEAP will make you pause, feel, and think. Our hope is that these stories will also compel LEAP readers to act.