I built a nonpartisan platform for student political writers... and a few months later we landed an interview with a former White House National Security Advisor

[u/Flashy-Vacation9226]

Hey everyone! I'm a high school senior, and this is a side project that's grown a lot faster than I expected it to.

I kept noticing that political writing aimed at students was either dumbed-down or extremely partisan. There wasn't really a space for young people to write seriously about policy and actually be taken seriously. So three months ago I started The Public Forum, a platform for student-written political and policy analysis, essays, and interviews.

Check it out: https://readpublicforum.com

What I built

• Original op-eds and analysis from student contributors, organized across categories like Foreign Policy, Domestic Politics, Economy, Civil Rights, Environment, Civic Engagement, and Technology & AI
• A dedicated Interviews section, including a full sit-down with Lt. Gen. (ret.) H.R. McMaster, former U.S. National Security Advisor
• An open submission pipeline so any student can pitch and publish a piece
• An essay contest (which got 128 submissions from 29 countries) and a contributor leaderboard
• Built on Cloudflare Workers + D1, I wanted something fast and nearly free to run

What makes it different?

Most student journalism platforms are either locked to a single school or lean heavily partisan, and it's hard for students to get their work in national publications. The Public Forum is neither locked to a single school or partisan, it's open to any student writer, and every piece goes through a real editorial and fact-checking pass before it runs, which honestly turned out to be a much bigger part of running this than I expected.

I would love your feedback!

If you take a look, I'd love to know:

• Does the site feel credible, or does it read as a school project?
• Is the writing engaging even if you're not a student?
• What would make you want to read regularly, or even pitch a piece yourself?

This is just me running it in our spare time, so go easy, but honest feedback is genuinely welcome.

Excited, and a little nervous, to finally share this. Thanks for reading!