13th January 2026
Ask the winner: Eliza Clark on following your passions and “just going for it”
Hello everybody,
This week on ‘Ask the Winner,’ I’m talking to Eliza Clark, winner of the 2022 Terry Mansfield Award CBE prize for Tomorrow’s Talent and Best Magazine for her school magazine, The Beacon.
The Beacon had been a tradition at Eliza’s school “for decades.” As a Year 7 student, she’d looked up at what the older students were producing, knowing it was something she wanted to be part of when her turn came.
Then COVID hit. As a result, the year before Eliza’s team took it on, there was no Beacon at all.
“Coming back, we were quite aware we were in quite a historic year,” Eliza explains. “We just wanted it to be something that really brought people together.” The team – about 12 students including four in the core editorial group – decided to focus on what ‘beacon’ really means: “that symbol of light and hope.”
They put their school building on the front cover. “Because we had so many lockdowns and did so much of the work remotely from each other, that made the actual school building itself quite important to us as kind of a lighthouse.”
The process of editing
“The moment when I personally knew it was going really well was when we had all of the pages, everything had essentially been made. Seeing it all laid out, slotting everything into the right places – was when it felt real. That was so satisfying,” Eliza recalls.
The 46-page magazine included everything from crossword pages and memes to dense history pieces and teacher interviews. But Eliza’s personal favourite? The positivity page.
“We had quotes from different teachers and we interviewed the previous head girl – just words of wisdom. When you’re a teenager, you don’t tend to enjoy the ‘cringe’ things. But we kind of stuck to our guns that we should have a bit of very obvious positivity.”
“Don’t shy away from bringing a bit of heart”
“This is your opportunity outside the very strict world of A levels and marking criteria to put out on the page what you want to put out. If there are particular topics that really strike something within you, then that’s your chance to put it out there.”
Eliza’s team introduced a student competition where classmates could submit artwork. “We used the magazine as a way to elevate things that other students are passionate about. Seeing the publication as a gift to be able to do that is a good way to approach it.”
The magazine became a vehicle for topics and creativity that had no other outlet in the school curriculum.
Making time, following your passions
When it came time to apply for The Beacon editorial team, Eliza was concerned she might be too busy, had too many hobbies and needed to focus on A Levels.
“But I’d had the passion for the magazine since I was in year seven. It decided to just go for it and submitted my application.”
“You don’t know what’s going to happen. The worst that will happen is that you overcommit yourself, but you’re more likely to regret not going for things.”
Thank you Eliza – I really think this outstanding story of determination and creativity is such an inspiration.
Enter the 2026 Shine School Media Awards
Could your school magazine, newspaper or podcast be a 2026 year’s winner? The Shine School Media Awards celebrate student journalism and school media projects that give young people a genuine voice.
Entry is free and open to all UK schools. Winners receive money-can’t-buy experiences including mentoring from industry professionals, newsroom visits and work experience opportunities.
Til next week,
Richard
Chair of Shine