Oumaima Yahiaoui (19) has been Rotterdam’s Youth Poet Laureate since February 2026, the city where she was born and raised. Since her appointment, she has written two poems in collaboration with city poet Benzokarim: ‘In die Glittering’ and ‘Wisselen’. In April 2026, she also published a correspondence with Martijn Simons in his book Beste meneer Simons. Themes of autonomy and growing up are central to her work, as she explores what freedom looks like and what it means when a changing sense of self begins to rub against everything around it.