So often so many different types of people are marginalized by the histories presented in public and private schools, but PBS, as part of its 50th anniversary celebration offers everyone a chance to be heard and become part of an “American Portrait.”

You have the opportunity to tell your own story by choosing from 14 questions and uploading a short video. There’s a chance that PBS will follow up and highlight some stories.

At the TCA Winter Showcase presentation, Dave Sirlunick, President of Entertainment of RadicalMedia said, “We will be curating.” So things that are trending or for some reason gaining traction, will be highlighted. Some these will be “documented in a fuller way” with teams sent out to learn more.

Questions:

1. I was raised to believe…
2. The tradition I carry on is…
3. What keeps me up at night is…
4. When I step outside my door…
5. Most days. I feel…
6. A day’s work is…
7. My greatest challenge is…
8. My parent(s) wanted me to…
9. My Saturday night looks like…
10. My American story started…
11. You don’t know what it’s like too…
12. What gets me out of bed in the morning is…
13. The people I relate to are…
14. I took a risk when…

There are, of course, guidelines. The key three are:  “Be creative. Be honest. Be respectful.“

Others are listed below and taken from the PBS website. Please note the last warning below:

Share Your Own Content

Only share content that you’ve created yourself, or that you own the rights to share. Content copied or collected from the Internet is generally prohibited. Please refer to the Terms of Use for additional information about ownership and license grant.

Avoid Gratuitously Offensive or Objectionable Material

American Portrait is intended for a very diverse audience. While we want your submissions to be genuine and uninhibited, gratuitously offensive material (e.g., violence, racial epithets, sexism, graphic language, or nudity) should not be included unless it is absolutely essential to understanding the matter at hand and does not include obscene, indecent, or profane content.

Do Not Advertise

American Portrait is about telling real stories of real people across the country. This is not a platform to solicit buying or selling of any goods or services in any way. Also, please do not include links to other websites or platforms in your submissions.

Respect the Community and Be Responsible

We encourage diverse views and perspectives, and we expect participants to be respectful of one another. We strictly prohibit content that supports hate speech, violence, or threats toward any specific individual or group of people for any reason.

Please be truthful. Don’t share content that impersonates someone else, and don’t submit misleading images or captions that aren’t representative of your story.

Don’t include personal contact details in the publicly viewable fields of your submission (the last name and email address you use to create your account will never be displayed publicly).

We will work with law enforcement if we believe there’s a threat to individual or public safety.