A personal essay is a non-fiction type of essay that typically focuses on one’s own life, experience, and thoughts. More commonly, school and college students will be asked to write a personal essay as an assignment or for a college application. You may think that writing a personal essay is easy, but actually, it involves a lot of difficulties. When it comes to writing a personal essay, you must have an incredible topic and should present yourself in a way to persuade your readers. In case, you run short of personal essay ideas, check this blog. To make the topic selection easier for you, here, we have presented a list of 235 best personal essay topics. Continue reading to learn more about personal essay writing.
What is a Personal Essay?
A personal essay is a piece of writing through which the writers can share a memorable event or lessons they have learned from their life experiences. In simple terms, it is a concise autobiographical non-fiction that is depicted in a creative, formal, or conversational style with a sense of intimacy. Remember, for writing a personal essay, you can use any narrative style and share your experiences, observations, real-life stories, feelings, and opinions subjectively.
Tips for Choosing a Good Personal Essay Topic
Sometimes it might be challenging for you to identify the right topic for a personal essay. In such instances, following these tips will be helpful for you to easily cross the personal essay topic selection phase.
- To prepare a personal essay, select a topic that reflects significant events, challenges, or achievements in your life that have shaped you.
- Choose a personal essay topic you are passionate about so that you can create an engaging essay.
- During personal essay topic selection, consider the audience for your essay and what might be relevant or impressive to them.
- Avoid broad personal essay topics and instead focus on a specific feature or tale.
- Pick an essay topic that enables you to share a personal anecdote or experience.
- Give preference to a personal essay topic that resonates with you and allows you to share your unique perspective and experiences.
- Consult with your instructor and get approval or feedback for the personal essay topic you have selected.
Understand How to Write a Personal Essay
In general, when it comes to a personal essay assignment, you will be asked to state your opinion about an issue, share a story, document what you have observed, or describe an event, person, object, or place.
Whatever your essay theme is, when writing a personal essay, you should start with a catchy introduction to grab the attention of the audience. Also, in the introductory paragraph, you should specifically highlight the important points or ideas you wish to communicate with your readers.
Next to the introduction, you should write the body of your essay. Here, in detail, you need to explain each idea in each paragraph with relevant examples. While writing the body, you can include a lot of sensory details and strong verbs to make your essay persuasive.
After you have explained all the main ideas of your topic, you should end the essay by writing a thought-provoking conclusion. In the conclusion section of your essay, you should explain what personal lesson you have learned or how that experience contributed to shaping your personality.
Before you begin writing your essay, always make sure to organize your ideas by crafting a well-structured personal essay outline. The essay outline will act as a road map for you. Most importantly, if you have an essay outline, you will not miss any important points related to your topic while writing your essay.
List of Personal Essay Topics and Ideas
As far as the personal essay is concerned, you can write on any subject or theme including travel, hobbies, family, friendship, childhood, etc. Especially, to make your essay impressive, it is good to choose argumentative personal essay topics or persuasive personal essay topics of your choice.
For writing a personal essay, you have plenty of essay topics to choose from. Listed below are a few top personal essay topics that will help you to score an A+ grade.
Personal Argumentative Essay Topics
In a personal essay, you may argumentatively approach any of the topics suggested below. Particularly, when you write a personal argumentative essay, you should present your claim, support it with evidence, and refute counterarguments to convince readers of your perspective.
- What is more critical: wealth or happiness?
- What could you live without?
- Your attitude to feminism.
- What does your ethnic identity mean to you?
- Your opinion on cosmetic surgery.
- The most precious moments of your life.
- Explain what it means to be a human.
- Significance of personal growth.
- Is it important to be impulsive about fashion?
- Significance of healthy lifestyle choices.
- Are all the genders equally emotional?
- Are printed books better than e-readers?
- Do you think that college should be free?
- Do you think that beauty standards are more inclusive?
- What does your gender identity mean to you?
Also, Read – Thought-Provoking Argumentative Essay Topics for You to Explore
Personal Persuasive Essay Topics
A personal persuasive essay is a type of essay in which you will have to use emotional appeals, logical reasoning, and personal experiences to persuade readers to accept your viewpoints. The following are some personal persuasive essay prompts to get started.
- Why is school life called the golden period of life?
- Is it important to stop segregating people based on their gender identity?
- What is more important to you: participating in sports or winning?
- What is more important to you: Money or job satisfaction?
- Can your hobbies help in a future career?
- Is it possible to avoid stress?
- Why is volunteering important?
- Why do I recommend students to study abroad?
- How to help our world survive.
- Your opinion on distance learning and online education.
- Is it ethical to buy products tested on animals?
- Can you complete your homework faster while listening to music?
- How can we make the world a better place?
- How does online shopping make me spend more money?
- Why every child should be disciplined?
- Are dress codes a good idea for schools?
- Why boarding schools are better compared to day schools?
- Should students need to take a special class for self-defense?
- Should kids learn how to cook their food?
- Is it ethical to train dogs as service animals?
Topics for Personal Persuasive Essays
In this section, we have shared a list of some additional personal persuasive essay topics and ideas. From the list, select any topic that aligns with your interests and needs and begin writing a memorable personal persuasive essay.
- What is the best career to have?
- How much should the public know about a celebrity’s personal life?
- Chippers are the crispiest, crunchiest, and most delicious brand of chips you will ever taste.
- Male and female roles in your family.
- How did your parents choose a name for you?
- When you hear and comprehend that gender is just a societal norm, how does it affect you?
- What are your opinions about same-sex marriage? Has your religious belief ever impacted these opinions of yours?
- What is your opinion on how childhood trauma and experiences shape an individual’s behavior and decisions?
- Is it necessary to put important aspects of life like education and mental health at risk to remain trendy?
- When you receive any controversial information do you run a fact check or are you most likely to believe the story and forward the information to others?
Personal Essay Questions on Family and Friends
Through a personal essay on family and friends, you may explore relationships, experiences, and memories with loved ones and reveal personal growth and insights. These are some topics about family and friends you may discuss in a personal essay.
- What is the main lesson you ever took from your father?
- Should relationships in a family be meaningful?
- Tell about your relationships with your brother/sister.
- Do social media hamper or help communication within a family?
- Misunderstandings between friends and how to solve them.
- Should a good friend provide support in difficult situations?
- Who were your first best friends in early childhood?
- How did you meet your best friend?
- Basic sex education for children or adolescents.
- Pregnancy prevention education.
- Sibling relationship programs
- Drug & Alcohol Prevention
- What happened during your first day at school?
- How do you learn something new?
- The most unfortunate event ever happened to you.
Personal Narrative Essay Topics
In a personal narrative essay, you should present a meaningful personal event or story using vivid details and reflection to convey meaning and insight. Especially, to create a personal narrative essay, you may take into account any of the below-listed topics or ideas.
- How did you overcome fear?
- The biggest challenge you have overcome.
- Did you experience failure?
- How did you cook a meal for the first time?
- Tell me how you helped someone.
- What games did you play when you were a child?
- The first time you were home alone.
- A teacher you will never forget.
- A story from your childhood.
- An episode from your school life.
- Your first trip abroad.
- Write an essay about your first day in college.
- Describe an awkward encounter you had in college.
- Is it easy to make friends at school?
- Describe your awesome school memories.
Simple Personal Essay Topics for Students
If you need to easily create a personal essay, give preference to any simple topic related to personal events or life experiences. Particularly, for students, here, we have suggested some easy personal essay prompts to deal with.
- Explain your commitments.
- My favorite teacher.
- Should college education be free for those who can’t pay for it?
- How does freedom matter in your life?
- A public figure that you would invite to speak at your college/high school
- How do you leave your comfort zone?
- Things you appreciate in life.
- How did you meet your college roommates?
- Describe intellectual challenges you would like to solve.
- Outdoor activities you like the most.
- What does success mean to you?
- Your bravest moment.
- Why did you make a difficult choice?
- A place you try to avoid.
- How you overcame a fear.
Engaging Personal Essay Topics
The personal essay you create should be inspiring and engaging to your readers. So, it is important to prepare a personal essay on a captivating topic. Listed below are some personal essay questions that will help you hold your readers’ attention.
- Words of wisdom that hit home and changed your way of thinking
- The moment when you knew you grew up
- What you would do with power
- How money matters in your life
- Your greatest discovery
- Why will you succeed?
- How you’d spend a million dollars
- Why you’ll never tell a lie
- Something you can’t resist
- The most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen
- When did you make a difficult choice?
- A place that fascinates you the most.
- Why you will succeed.
- Effects of being a single child.
- How do my pets make me a better person?
Personal Cause and Effect Essay Topics
The ultimate aim of a personal cause-and-effect essay is to examine how a particular event, choice, or experience influences your life. These are some fascinating topics you may select for writing a personal cause-and-effect essay.
- Books that changed my worldview.
- Effects of social media on the daily routine.
- What makes me rebel against my parents?
- The influence of regular exercise on my health and well-being.
- Why does going to college make me an independent person?
- The influence of my parents on my life choices.
- How do my failures make me stronger?
- How did my parents help me to study?
- Why did you select your major?
- Why some students cheat.
- The effects on children of a broken marriage.
- What is your logo in life?
- Why are you concerned about environmental issues?
- What is your cherished dream?
- Your favorite social media.
Read More – Fantastic Cause and Effect Essay Topics for You to Consider
Interesting Personal Essay Topics
When you write a personal essay, make sure to choose a topic that aligns with your interest. By writing an essay on interesting personal topics, you may freely express yourself, connect with your readers, and showcase your personality, perspectives, and writing skills effectively.
- What technological tools take more of your time than others?
- Your favorite holiday destinations.
- Have you ever watched a movie that your parents have advised you to watch?
- Your favorite restaurant everyone should visit.
- What is your favorite movie genre and why?
- What role does music play in your life?
- How many photos do you take every day?
- What is your dream job?
- Do you consider yourself a travel lover or a homebody?
- Talk about your dream country.
- Which movie left the best memories and why?
- The first book you read.
- The death of a friend or relative that influenced you.
- The biggest loss you have experienced in your life
- Something you can do that a robot could never do.
Impactful Personal Essay Prompts
If you want to create a long-lasting impact in the minds of your readers, then prepare a personal essay on any of the topics suggested here. Writing about impactful personal essay topics will also help you inspire, educate, or raise awareness about certain issues or life experiences.
- How money matters in your life
- Words that prompted hope
- If you could be a building
- The animal you’d like to be
- An accident that changed everything
- The hardest news you’ve had to deliver
- What superpower you would choose
- The moment when you knew you were grown up
- An odd experience that didn’t make sense at the time
- What makes your mom or dad special
- Describe how you handled a moment when you felt like you didn’t fit in.
- What is the best advice you have ever received and how it has impacted your life?
- How do you make time for something you are passionate about outside of academics or work?
- Write about a time when you took a risk in your life.
- What is the biggest mistake you have ever made in life?
- Have you ever experienced covert racism, and do you think your experiences or environmental factors have strengthened your stereotypical beliefs and made your thoughts and judgments prejudiced?
- What do you think of continuing a job even if it negatively affects your mental health?
- Do you think to be able to prioritize mental health and an individual’s needs, one has to belong to the privileged section of the population?
- Do you feel that eliminating someone’s horrid crimes like murder and rape due to the reason of insanity does justice to society?
- Are you scared of any community in particular, or do you think stereotypes and prejudice have a hand in this fear?
Top Personal Essay Ideas
Would you like to prepare a high-quality personal essay? If yes, then compose a personal essay on any of the top-rated topics that we have recommended here. With these topics, you may craft a personal essay deserving of an A+ grade.
- A person you will think about at the end of your life
- A proud moment when you did the right thing
- A major wrong choice you made.
- The first encounter with a stranger
- When a child teaches you a lesson
- An experience with death
- Your secret talent
- Are you an extrovert or an introvert?
- The meaning of color
- A problem that you would like to solve in the world
- The steps you would take to stop conflicts.
- Describe your fears and phobias in life.
- What motivates you to work hard and follow your dreams in life?
- Something Most People Don’t Know About Something
- How do you react to impulses?
- Write about your personal philosophy or mantra.
- What is something you are currently struggling with?
- Share the most important lesson you have learned from a failure.
- Write about a time when you had to make a difficult decision.
- Describe a place that holds special meaning to you.
- Everyone has a plan “A” when it comes to choosing a career. What is your plan “B”?
- How have moments of racial and religious discrimination affected you and your professional life?
- Should prisons be abolished? If so, what is the negative and positive impact of this global decision?
- In what way has the instant gratification of social media changed our relationship with technology?
- What would the impact of a potential legalization of productivity drugs look like in current society?
Unique Personal Essay Prompts
Here, we have suggested a collection of unique topics to make a personal essay stand out. When you work on original personal essay topics, you will get an opportunity to showcase your originality and creativity.
- A day you will never forget.
- A movie that relates to your life
- The most annoying thing for you
- How you made a difficult decision
- How you work in a team
- Compare yourself to your parents
- A celebrity that you want to interview
- A time when a friend helped you out
- A family tradition that you carry on
- A piece of technology that you cannot live without
- An object that you have kept since childhood
- The most irresistible thing for you
- The time when you felt the greatest pride
- The most distractive thing in the classroom
- Examining the Primary Causes of the Increasing Rates of Mental Illness in Contemporary Society
- Should the right to participate in vote be exclusively available for people with some form of education?
- Is knife control a necessary and sufficient method of knife crime prevention?
- What is the impact of the financial success Walt Disney has had in the last three decades?
- Discuss how can the presence of acne affect the life of a teenager. What about an adult?
- Compare and contrast the effects of using computers, smartphones, and tablets in high school and in university.
Popular Personal Essay Questions
To create a personal essay, you may choose any of the below-listed popular topics. But when you prepare a personal essay on the topics that others frequently choose, make sure to approach the topic from a unique perspective and share fresh insights.
- The Value of Cognitive Health Services in Elementary Schools
- How to Manage Psychological Health in an Effective Way
- Discuss the most common Psychological Conditions in Older People.
- What are the primary motivators for students when they have to finish a written assignment?
- Do students frequently communicate with peers online rather than in person?
- When you can’t find your smartphone in the morning, are you anxious?
- Do pupils spend a lot of time playing video games every day?
- How do good and bad moods sound today for teens trying to use music to express their moods?
- Should people choose a career path based on the potential for high income or on the potential for societal benefit? Explain.
- It’s never an opportunity to be a friend; it’s always a beautiful obligation. Agree/disagree.
- How does peer communication on the internet become easier?
- Should a trustworthy friend offer assistance under trying circumstances?
- Do you and your buddies share any hobbies in common?
- How many apps are on the smartphones of today’s students? Are they all beneficial?
- One of the most important modern innovations is the internet. Accept or reject.
Personal Essay Topics on Exam
In a personal essay, you may also write about the exam struggles, strategies, and lessons you have learned from a particular test experience. Listed below are a few topics about exams you may explore in a personal essay.
- Does technology aid in the personality development of teenagers?
- Do video games help students perform better academically?
- Talk about the most intriguing medical technology advancements.
- Which personality traits do teenagers who watch scary movies develop?
- Education should be free
- Understanding the Context of the Delivery of Mental Health Care: A Descriptive Essay on Nursing Theory
- Psychological Conditions in Films Butterfly Effect and A Beautiful Mind.
- Overview of issues with shame and social exclusion related to mental illness and stigma in Saudi Arabia.
- The Main Causes Why Mental Illness is Less Common in the LGBT Community than the General Population
- Never an opportunity, friendship is always a wonderful obligation. Agree/disagree.
- Liken your family members to animals. Which animal in this family are you?
- In The Yellow Wallpaper and The Bell Jar, women experience mental breakdowns
- Music And The Treatment Of Mental Illness
- A Comprehensive Look at the Disorder of Understanding Anxiety
- Essay Analyzing the Influence of Verbal Abuse on Depression
- Share your experience of meeting your tiny sibling for the first time at a hospital
- Is there a difference in work performance between Ivy League alumni and lower-ranking university students?
- Share your experience of being in charge of a large retail outlet in your city for the first time
- Something that you have witnessed in your childhood days that you will never forget
- Share your experience of being betrayed by a best friend from primary school and your reaction to it
Final Words
Selecting the ideal topic for a personal essay might be difficult, but you can select a topic that best captures your distinct voice and viewpoint by thinking back on your experiences, passions, and objectives. Especially, to spot the appropriate personal essay topic, make sure to brainstorm, identify themes, and narrow down your options. The list of topics and ideas we have suggested in this blog will also be helpful for you in creating a compelling and meaningful personal essay that leaves a lasting impression on your readers. If you struggle to locate a good topic and draft an impactful personal essay, approach us for assistance. The finest essay writers on our team will guide you in creating an excellent personal essay worthy of top scores.
