Blooming Minds Young Writers and Arts Awards held its 10th annual edition over the weekend, at the Lagos Oriental Hotel, bringing together young creatives, educators and parents in a celebration of talent, innovation and youth development.
The initiative, which runs in both Nigeria and Ghana, is designed to nurture and recognise children with creative abilities in writing, arts and fashion, while equipping them with skills for leadership and personal development. Winners received cash prizes and opportunities for publishing deals, while shortlisted participants who did not emerge winners were offered access to creative writing workshops.
Founder of the initiative, Thelma Ofuso-Asamoah, said the awards are part of a broader youth empowerment effort under the Booming Minds Change Champions Network.
She explained that the project is aimed at providing a platform for young people to develop their creative and intellectual capacities.
“We’re about empowering young people and giving them a platform where they can improve on themselves, they can get better, get the skills and the knowledge that they need to be better people in society,” she said.
According to her, the programme focuses on harnessing creativity in children, whether in writing, visual arts or fashion, as a tool for leadership development.
“Its about exploring children’s creativity, giving them a platform where they can see what the children, you know, get better at, what they can learn. And it’s just about raising leaders. And for us, we’re using arts and literature to raise young leaders,” she stated.
She added that the initiative encourages critical thinking and curiosity among participants, preparing them for future careers.
“They can have this ability to think critically, to be intuitive, where they can be inquisitive and ask questions, and just put things around them,” she said.
Marking its 10th anniversary, the organisation also launched its first book, a collection of stories from young writers in Nigeria and Ghana.
“This is our 10th year. Coincidentally, we’ve published our first collection of stories. So there’s a book that we’re launching as well,” she said.
“And it’s a collection of 10 stories that we’ve curated together from Ghana and Nigeria together in a book.”
She noted that seeing their work published motivates children to improve and remain engaged.
“And they can see at the end, that’s my story, and that gets them more involved, and they want to do more, they want to do better,” she added.
Over the years, the programme has reached thousands of participants across Nigeria.
“We’ve run workshops where we’re helping children to get better at their writing, get better at literature. And I think that we’ve worked with over 9,000 children around Nigeria so far,” she said.
The event also featured a runway show, giving children with interests in fashion an opportunity to showcase their talents.
“Run Way Fashion show is a highlight in this event. So for those children who are not part of the creative writing or the arts competition, they’re right there on the runway,” she explained.
On the selection process, she said entries are assessed based on strict criteria, including originality, language, theme and overall quality, with additional verification steps to ensure authenticity.
“So once essays are shortlisted, we call them randomly and just talk to the child. They run us through what they’ve written, tell us what inspired them to write,” she said.
Looking ahead, Ofuso-Asamoah said the organisation plans to continue publishing and mentoring young talents into future writers and leaders.
“Long-term, the plan is we’ll continue to publish. And if we get youngsters who we know have the ability, we’ll follow them through to get them to write and become writers eventually,” she said.
She emphasised that the broader goal goes beyond producing authors.
“The benchmark for this whole thing is to raise leaders’ true hearts of literature,” she said.
“We’re hoping that while they’re involved in this project, they’re building the skills that they need to be better leaders in their society.”
She also encouraged parents to visit their website Www.bmccn.org and enroll their children in the programme.
“If you haven’t heard about us before, if you have children between the ages of 6 and 15, get them here,” she said.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
