About
Our Mission
Transparent Backpack, originally launched in 2026 in Massachusetts, is a passion project grounded in the belief that sharing stories across perspectives helps build strong communities. In times of overall discontent or disconnection in the lives of so many, particularly those in the school community, sharing stories can help break down barriers and start crucial conversations. Inspired by researchers, authors, and independent projects across the globe that have encouraged narrative story telling as a means to understand each other and grow in our collective strength, Transparent Backpack aims to do that within school communities.
How to Participate
- Participate as a School or District: Bring the content of Transparent Backpack to your school or district by accessing our free implementation guide, including suggested follow up activities for students, families, and community members to engage in story sharing and understanding
- Note: Districts must request and receive the implementation guide in order to use the posts on Transparent Backpack to facilitate larger scale discussions in their school communities
- Participate as a Storyteller: Any individual within a school community can submit a story. This means that students, caregivers, and faculty are able to participate. See "How to Submit a Story" below to become an anonymous sharer of a personal, impactful school experience.
Submit a Story
Guidelines for Submission
If you are a student, former student, caregiver, or faculty member of a Massachusetts school district and would like to submit a story, many formats and styles are accepted (see below titled "What to Submit"). It is important to note the following guidelines apply to any submission:
Any submission must be reflective of a single, true, recent, highly impactful school-related experience (that happened within the last 5 years)
Participants must not submit content that includes inappropriate language, threats, or profanity
Participants must submit content that is their own and follows local school policies relative to the acceptable use of technology and plagiarism
Participants must submit content anonymously, and also not include the real names of any person/s and/or school/s in their submission
Participants must select the county in Massachusetts where they attended the school that corresponds to their story submission
A story submission can be reflective of a positive or negative single school experience. Contrasting with much of the content on social media, story submissions posted through Transparent Backpack are not meant to be personal "vents" of grievances, but rather, thoughtful narrative accounts or works of art that can be used to foster critical conversations and propel change in our school community.
Although we know that story sharing can be deeply personal and private, participants are always encouraged to contact their local school administrators and support staff to address specific concerns.
What to Submit
Participants may submit narrative stories, poems, letters, audio recordings, or artistic representations of a single, impactful school experience. Submissions are accepted in any language.
For all submissions, participants must include on the submission:
A "From" line that notes whether the participant is sharing as: a student, former student, caregiver, or faculty member and notates the name of the school district
An estimated date of when the experience occurred
A date of submission
A selected county in Massachusetts where the school experience occurred
Participants submitting a story in writing are encouraged to consider the following:
Provide a description of the event in summary or narrative form
Provide a description of the impact it had on you (positive or negative)
*If the experience was negative, it is recommended to describe how it could have been different, or what you wish would have happened instead
How/Where to Submit
Submit your story here (anonymous google form)
When submissions are approved by the managers of Transparent Backpack, the participant agrees that the submission will likely be posted publicly by Transparent Backpack. Additionally, the participant consents to the use of the story for follow up activities including and not limited to: community building with students and/or families, professional development for faculty, and more.