Joselyn Chimbo knows how to read because her grandmother came to the United States, a move that allowed Joselyn access to education, books, and the freedom to learn. Joselyn's grandmother didn't have that freedom, she says, boxed out of literacy because her family couldn't afford to pay for her to access it.

“Literacy was withheld from Indigenous communities like my grandmother’s as a tool of oppression,” Joselyn writes. "Those left illiterate were exploited and experienced a lack of economic and social mobility due to the massive cost of an education.

Because of that history, 17-year-old Joselyn, from New York, is advocating for the right to read so young people like her will continue to have the freedom to read a wide and unlimited array of books, offering them access to information and perspective on the world. Joselyn is the grand prize winner of the New York Public Library's National Teen Art Contest, part of their annual Freedom to Read campaign necessitated by the “alarming rise in book bans and challenges around the country.”

According to PEN America, there were more than 10,000 bans on more than 4,000 books in the 2023-2024 school year. Of these banned or challenged books, most feature LGBTQ characters or characters of color. Since 2021, PEN America has documented more than 16,000 book bans in public schools, which it calls a level of “censorship” not seen since the 1950s, during the McCarthy-era Red Scare.

As a reminder of the importance of the freedom to read, Joselyn's award-winning painting depicts matriarchs and their children — a testament to the women in her family who made sacrifices so she and future generations would have access to education. She also painted a young girl reading “a book that opens to a shadow of orange and red dust representing knowledge,” Joselyn wrote in her artist statement. Together, these women represent “a generational connection and how we should foster and grant the ability to learn and read to all ages.”

“I was interested in creating an art piece specifically on the topic of the freedom to read because it can connect back to the art I usually enjoy making,” Joselyn tells Teen Vogue. “The art I am used to creating is centered around my culture, as well as my identity.”

Joselyn's work will be featured in an upcoming edition of NYPL’s Teen Voices magazine and will be exhibited this summer in the flagship New York Public Library location. Joselyn won the grand prize, and the Library named 17 additional winners, young artists from across the country who submitted work representing what the power of reading means to them. And she'll use the award toward continuing her own education.

“Winning NYPL’s National Teen Art Contest means a lot to me because I’m able to share my work with others, as well as use the award grant to fund my supplies for my freshman year of college,” Joselyn says.

Here, see Joselyn's painting, grand prize winner of the National Teen Art Contest, exclusively premiered in Teen Vogue.