This article draws on the experiences of two young adults, Sean and Jerome, who participated in a writing workshop at a juvenile detention center. The young adults composed screenplays to explore how writing could call on their unique perspectives and life experiences to amplify their beliefs. While some educators emphasize a skills-based curriculum to improve youth's abilities, this detracts from youth viewing writing as a purposeful and authentic activity. The purpose of the project as the authors describe, was for youth to view writing as purposeful and relevant, accomplished by grounding the writing instruction in their lives. Most importantly, the project was an attempt to challenge the narrow and deficient representations of the youths' lives and for them to experience literacies in ways that were personally relevant, locally connected, and rooted in acts of creative meaning-making. Often when engaging students in creative writing projects, educators teach narrative writing, particularly memoir and poetry, and yet, while screenplays are overlooked, they are prevalent in youth's lives, through movies, television, and theater. This is a genre that youth are used to consuming -- and the purpose of this project was to provide an opportunity to compose screenplays as creative producers. Screenwriting gave Sean and Jerome the chance to think about the role of their topics (peer pressure and music) in their lives and also imagine an alternative reality as authors of the story. By writing screenplays, the youth were able to try on the persona of a storyteller. Making the connection between classroom writing and forms of writing, such as screenplays, that are present in their daily lives helps students see the relevance in their assignment. In addition, this engagement helps students better understand how an author crafts a piece of writing as they have knowledge of the purpose of the writing.