Menu

More apps built by Reedsy

Assemble a team of professionals

The writing app for authors

Writing courses, events and memberships

Get your book reviewed

Weekly writing prompts and contests

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Featured stories
Activity feed

Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of coming of age short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

Coming of age Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. No matter how old you are, there’s just something inherently relatable about coming-of-age tales. Discover the best new coming-of-age stories right here!

Coming of age Short Stories – Page 2

RISE

Weekly Contest #367

Joy steps onto the white luminescent platform. It floats, suspended in the void of space; only stars around her. Before her appears a being of Light--tall and god-like in stature, no face, and MusiQ flowing from its essence. Joy's eyes widen in wonder, as the Light-Being stretches out what resembles an arm and a hand, holding what looks like a scroll. It then speaks with a resonance that Joy felt in her bones. "Chosen One," it says, "you have made it to God-Mode." Joy has spent thousands of light-years journeying through space, time, and hun...

2 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

NO MORE CALIFORNIA

Weekly Contest #367

Why leave this place, California, no one is supposed to leave .The weather is so nice all year long-Where I was going it snowed in winter and the Italian ski team was a big deal.No, it wasn’t the weather.I would become a professor’s wife.Professors often go to conferences sometimes in exotic places, which would be fun. I love travel, and the professor’s wives often get a special tour.My bout of multiple sclerosis put an end to this however.I did get to participate in an Apple Computer event in Paris. Fun, but quite tiring. That is the proble...

2 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Reading the Room

Weekly Contest #367

He was sitting at the bar, staring deeply into a glass of pale liquid with the faintest tinge of brown to it. His shoulders looked like they were barely held to their sockets as they curled in on themselves as if to ward off an unseen blow from the world around him. He had bags beneath his eyes and lines creased his face more than he remembered from a couple years back. He didn’t seem that old, but already the reflection in the mirror behind the bar seemed to paint the picture of a lonely old man sitting on his regular barstool, which made h...

2 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

The Feud

Weekly Contest #367

The garden was built at the perfect angle of East and West. The sun rising over the roses and setting on the lemon trees, soaking them in all the last remaining sunshine.I don’t know much about how it was built or when, but today is hot as I close the large wooden gate behind me.Last October, we were concerned it wasn’t going to survive because it was unseasonably cold.But it did.And it came back stronger, my sister said.None of that really matters, though, because it hasn’t rained in over a week. I walk back with the watering can now empty ...

2 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

A Symphony of Falling Petals

Weekly Contest #367

The soft, warm glow hit my face as I took a deep breath. The faint tang of cigarette smoke mingled with the expensive French perfume given to me by the proprietor of this place a heavy, luxurious scent generously spritzed over my body because I was the nightclub highest-earning singer these past few months. It was dizzying, yet irresistibly alluring, wrapping around me like a second skin. Below the wooden edge of the stage, the clamor of voices and the clinking of heavy liquor glasses filled the room, but the noise did not make me nervous; o...

2 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

The Girls Go to The Shrine of Knock

Weekly Contest #366

If you thought the religious aspects of a Catholic secondary school were just symbolic, you would be wrong. We had serious religion classes and were often herded over to the church for special services. We had one priest who was particularly popular as he was as handsome as he was charming (looking back now I would definitely classify him as a twink—a small, usually attractive gay man). At one point he was replaced by a rather large man with ruddy red cheeks and a very clear drinking problem. As we don’t generally say that someone is struggl...

10 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Knots, Knovels, and Kneecaps

Weekly Contest #366

Wedged in between the various courts and fields belonging to Maple Ridge Middle School and Silver Creek High School lies the nondescript Oakview Park. It contains a lone gazebo, a smattering of trees, and a slide. To this park, I owe a great debt as it was responsible for introducing me to the wonderful world of novels. Well, that and crutches. It was a warm day in February in Sage Valley, California, and several of us sixth graders had headed to the cool shade the park offered. Billy Parker, the cutest boy in our class, motioned for me to c...

6 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Backpacks, Miracles, and Immortality

Weekly Contest #366

1. My Backpack This is my backpack. Throughout my life, it’s been strapped on my back everywhere I go. It resembles an old army green military pack. As the distance has grown between my youth and where I am now, pondering what comes after I pass from this life, so has my pack. It’s enormous, reaching far above my head on top and below my knees on the bottom. From side to side it reaches out well beyond my shoulders. And, it’s heavy. It contains everything I’ve collected emotionally throughout my life. What I consider to be good stuff, and wh...

4 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Ambrosia

Weekly Contest #366

Stepping outside the airport, I was expecting my breath to be visible, as it had been every December since I was a babe. It wasn’t. The air didn’t feel the same as it had before. It lacked the crispness that made every inhale feel like it was the first time you were truly breathing. I pulled out my phone. A high of eighteen. Strange. It felt warmer, as though the ground itself were radiating heat. I squatted low, reaching down and placing my hand on the pavement. I felt the eyes of a hundred strangers digging into my back. This is my home, I...

10 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The Pothole

Weekly Contest #366

The Pothole 1701 words It was 1994, and I still considered myself a recent graduate. Technically, I was an adult. Emotionally, I looked back on getting caught with chewing gum in class and still thought it might permanently ruin my future. I wasn't rebellious or overly adventurous. I was the girl who’d gotten 98% A’s for the majority of high school and walked the straight and narrow line each day hoping to stay as far under the radar as possible.   Scott had graduated the year before me. We d...

8 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The Other Forever

Weekly Contest #366

I should have known better than to believe in forever.And no, this isn’t a love story.There are already too many of those. We know the script by heart—the almosts, the heartbreak, the grand gesture that comes just before the credits roll. We have shelves full of novels and playlists full of songs that insist romantic love is the greatest thing we’ll ever lose.But no one really prepares you for the other forever.The one you first believe in while kicking your feet beneath the swings at recess. The one written in crayon across folded notebook ...

5 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

To Young for Forever

Weekly Contest #366

At 17, in love with my high school sweetheart, I decided to get married and live happily ever after. We told each other that we were soulmates and best friends. Young and immature, we had to ask our parents for permission to get married. Our parents, being old-fashioned and believing in marriage before sex, gave their blessing and told us that this was the right thing to do and a blessing from God.We were popular in high school and were voted “Best Couple” by our peers. We both played sports, and I was the captain of our basketball team, the...

4 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

The Autonomy of the Present: Safeguarding Cognitive Momentum

Weekly Contest #366

The grey stone tower inside Julian’s consciousness was constructed from three winters of defensive geometry. It did not exist in the physical world of timber and mortar, yet its weight pressed against his ribs with a density more real than the cedar shingles of his cabin. Every evening, as the light drained from the mountain crevices, the copper bells of his memory chimed. They rang out with the precise timbres of old schoolmasters who had predicted his ruin, former business partners who had tallied his deficits, and the low-valley neighbors...

10 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Braver: A Saga of Crows

Weekly Contest #366

Her phone is ringing off the hook. She’s in bed. It’s past midnight. No way in Hell is she going to answer that damn thing… no way at the dead of this night. It's humid in her dank bedroom. Just breathing is arduous labor with the air choking her with each gasp. There are occasions in some evenings, when the air is actually cool and crisp, she can easily slip into slumber. On those cool refreshing days she stays up for a bit; a little past midnight with a chill cooling her body. On those days when she watches the lights transform in the twil...

3 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Born in Space: Tales of a Former Galactic Ranger

Winner of Weekly Contest #366 🏆

Life feels different when you grow up on a station. The low gravity grants a unique freedom. It felt like even the laws of physics couldn't hold me down. You never have to worry about falling. One good leap and you're touching the ceiling. One strong push and you're flying into a bookshelf. My mother didn't consider that last one a positive. She considered it the opposite, actually. That's a mother for you. More worried about scraped elbows than the ability to soar. I didn't have time to worry about that. There was an expanse of stars behin...

56 likes 24 comments 24
Read story
RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

Bring your short stories to life

Fuse character, story, and conflict with tools in Reedsy Studio. All for free.