BBC publishes Young Science Writer Award 2025 winning essay

Photo: Hasset Kifle reads her essay “Are Super Shoes Truly Super?”
at the 2025 YSWA Ceremony. (Credits: Mark Lewis Photography)

The Association of British Science Writers (ABSW) is delighted to announce that the BBC, one of our strategic partners for the Young Science Writer Award, has published the 2025 winning essay. This publication marks a fitting conclusion to a record-breaking year and gives outstanding young science writing a national platform.

This year’s overall winner is Hasset Kifle, whose award-winning essay, “Are Super Shoes Truly Super?”, impressed judges with its scientific rigour, clarity of explanation and confident, evidence-led argument. The piece is now live on the BBC website.

The Young Science Writer Award invites young people aged 14–16 from state-funded, non-selective secondary schools across the UK to investigate a STEM topic that genuinely captures their curiosity and then to communicate what they find with accuracy, insight and persuasive reasoning.

Entries are not assessed on knowledge recall alone: pupils are encouraged to research widely, weigh evidence, test assumptions, and explain why their chosen topic matters now, drawing readers into the scientific questions shaping modern life. Hasset’s essay exemplifies this approach, combining timely analysis with accessible explanation to show how science, technology and performance intersect in a way that is relevant to young people, athletes and the wider public.

2025 was a landmark year for the award, with over 600 entries submitted from schools across the UK – an extraordinary response that reflects both the appetite among young people to engage with science and the importance of creating credible routes for them to develop their writing and research skills. The overall standard was exceptionally high, and the judging panel noted the ambition of topics, the quality of sourcing, and the growing confidence with which pupils are communicating scientific ideas.

Alongside the overall winner, the judges also recognised a group of runners-up whose essays were outstanding in originality, quality of research and strength of communication:

• Runner-up: Faizah Tasnim Suha – “Is it a Good Idea to 3D Print the Heart?”

• Runner-up: Philippa Woodley – “The Invisible Struggle of Endometriosis”

A further cohort of entrants were awarded Highly Commended for essays that stood out for scientific accuracy, structure, and the ability to interrogate complex ideas with independence and care. You can read more about it on the 2025 YSWA page.

The 2025 finalists and highly commended entrants were celebrated at an awards ceremony in June, bringing together pupils, families, teachers, judges and supporters to recognise the research, curiosity and craft behind the essays. The event also featured talks from Jess Wade, Dean Burnett and Hanna Ayoob, offering finalists a chance to hear directly from working scientists and science communicators, and to reflect on how strong evidence, clear writing and intellectual courage can shape public understanding of science.

“Meeting this year’s finalists was genuinely inspiring – the confidence, curiosity and care they brought to their writing was remarkable. The Young Science Writer Award matters because it gives young people a rigorous, supportive platform to explore the science that shapes their lives, and to learn how to argue from evidence in a way that informs and engages others.” – Alex O’Brien, ABSW Vice Chair

ABSW extends sincere thanks to all pupils who entered, and to the teachers and families who supported them. We are also grateful to our wider community of judges, partners and supporters who help make the award possible each year. In particular, we thank the Science Museum for hosting the 2025 awards ceremony in June, and we recognise the ongoing contribution of partners including the BBC and the Royal Institution, whose support helps ensure that young people’s science writing can be celebrated on a national stage.

The publication of the winning essay marks the conclusion of the Young Science Writer Award 2025. We will be sharing further announcements in the coming days, including the launch of the Young Science Writer Award 2026 on 7 January.