A few weeks ago, I submitted a story to Teen Ink and I was thrilled to see that in the first couple of days of being online, it was rated and commented on a lot more than most of my other pieces. I worked really hard on this particular story and was pleased to see it get the praise I thought it deserved.

So this was all well and good until I checked the story's ratings. 14 people had rated the story. And 13 of those people had given it five out of five stars. 5 of those people had commented. But I also found that one person had given it only one star out of five. Not only that, but they also decided not to give me any critic on how I could have made it better. They didn't comment to tell me what I did in the story that made them dislike it enough to give it such a low rating. Which is why I ask, "did they even read it at all? Or are they just mocking me with the power they hold over my story in being able to rate without commenting?"

And this isn't the first time something like this has happened. It's happened with several of my other pieces as well. Someone gives it a low rating without telling me what I could have done better. And I know I'm not alone.

I read it in Teen Ink's forums. Many other teens are having the same problem. Teens are abusing their power in rating other's articles low even when the articles are amazingly good. They don't deserve a bad rating. But they are rated badly anyway.

And it's not the bad rating that got me down. It was the lack of respect the person had for my story. They could have at least commented on something they didn't like, something that made them choose to give me one out of five stars. They could have helped me in telling me what to do better the next time I write a story and then I would have let the bad rating pass. If only they had a good reason for rating it poorly. But no. They didn't. And it's not fair to me, the author of the piece, or others who have experienced the same problem.

Which is why I ask you, editors of Teen Ink, to change the layout of your website. Nothing drastic. Just so that people have to comment in order to rate. Only rating a piece should not be an option anymore. The link at the bottom of a article that says COMMENT should be RATE/COMMENT and the RATING stars at the top of the page should be removed. In the current COMMENT box, there should also be the new RATING stars. And teens should not be able to submit a rating or a comment without submitting the other.

I think that this will help make the website we teens love, Teen Ink, even better now. The unfairness of, as the reader, being able to give a praise-deserving article one out of five stars without supporting their rating should be eliminated.