M.I.A Presents

M.I.A is one of two Creative Youth Leads at Studio 74. She completed the Creative Media Programme (CMP) in 2025 while studying at Coventry College. Now, she’s preparing to lead the Poetry & Spoken Word section of CMP 2026, supporting students who love to express themselves and opening doors to self-expression through both words and non-verbal actions. Her poems are raw and honest, with a dialect so open and unfiltered that they defy convention. They’re not your typical “roses are red, violets are blue” verses, but instead reflect today’s youth narratives in a world shaped by social media and the search for belonging.

 

 

                                                                                                                                                   M.I.A Presents Poem Entry 01

 

To care so much is to betray one’s self,

 

to feel the need to live up to rapidly changing beauty standards that differ faster than a developing body,

 

to compare yourself to others online who hide their imperfections through filters and angles,

 

to know even if you are the beauty standard now in the next few months you might be out of fashion,

 

why bother?

 

we wrinkle,

we sag,

we go grey,

we discolour and lose sight,

 

we chase the high of living up to an ever changing unrealistic standard,

 

we mutilate ourselves in the name of perfection,

 

we starve, inject and regurgitate, to be seen as perfect in a world where beauty is subjective,

 

projecting our feelings of insecurity and self hatred onto others because we value people based off looks,

 

to try and conform is to attempt the un-achievable

 

Written By Mia DeMarco