When National Geographic reached out to 17-year-old Liliana Sandberg to congratulate her on winning the National Geographic Planet or Plastic? writing contest with Wattpad, she made one request: “For readers of #PlanetOrPlastic stories, I ask one thing of you. Please, don't let [my story] become real.”

Indeed, Sandberg’s original science fiction story, “Ouroboros,” tells the story of Coda-9994, a whale searching for a new home planet after the plastic waste crisis made life on Earth uninhabitable. Equal parts compelling and frightening, one of the National Geographic contest judges, children’s book author Trudi Trueit, remarked that the story gave her goosebumps.

Sandberg’s story was one of more than 6,000 Planet or Plastic?-themed stories submitted on the Wattpad platform as part