Sharing their Stories
Original works of four CNY women featured in "Teen Ink,"
a collection of essays and poems
By Jeanne Albanese, Staff Writer
Syracuse Herald Journal and Post-Standard, Syracuse, NY - December, 2000
In an instant, Marcy Griffin's
world collapsed.
When
she was 10, her mother died in a car accident, one year after her father had died
from a heart attack.
A few years later, she described the moment she
learned of her mother's death for a school assignment.
"When we
pulled into my driveway, it hit me. I would never see my mother again. One day
everything is there, and the next brings an incident of unbelievable tragedy -- a
person's life changes in the death of a heartbeat."
Griffin, 18,
wrote the essay during her sophomore year of high school in Chittenango. It was
published in a monthly teen magazine distributed at schools, then called
"The 21st Century."
Now her essay titled "Why Me?," has
been selected from among 12,000 published works for inclusion in "Teen Ink:
Our Voices, Our Visions," a compilation of the magazine's best essays,
poetry and fiction.
"Teen Ink" (HCI Teens, $12.95) features 101
essays by teens that deal with friendship, love, loss, family, heroes, fitting
in, memories and creativity. Three other Central New York women also have pieces
in the book.
Pamela Gorlin, who just completed her master's degree at
Syracuse University, wrote "Father Figure," a poem about weekly visits
from her divorced father; Sasha Dwyer, a sophomore at Cayuga County Community
College, wrote "A Life Still to Lead," about her cousin's death in a
drunken-driving accident; and Jen Corbett, a senior at SU, wrote "Firefly
Eyes," about a crush she had on a good friend.
Much of the writing,
like Griffin's, hits readers in the gut with powerful prose.
Through her
essay, Griffin gave voice to her pain.
"I couldn't actually talk
about it, but I could write it down on paper," says Griffin, a freshman at
the State University College at Cortland.
Giving teens an outlet for
expression in a world where they have little say has been the mission of the
Young Authors Foundation, which has published the magazine for 12 years, now
also called Teen Ink, and the book by the same name. All proceeds from the book
benefit the foundation, founded by Stephanie and John Meyer. The Meyers plan to
publish a second book in the spring and then hope to publish two books each
year.
"(It has) always been a real forum for them to express
themselves," says Stephanie Meyer, who edits the book and the magazine,
"and for them to feel they have a voice and have the quote-unquote power to
affect other people, that they have things to say that are meaningful ... that
they're not their stereotype."
Meyer says Teen Ink is unique because
the authors are teens, not adults reflecting about their teen
years.
"These kids are writing from the trenches," she says,
"from real experiences."
And their readers
connect.
Gorlin, 23, used her poem while student-teaching creative writing
at Henninger High School. She had the students read it, critique it and comment
on it. She didn't tell them she wrote it. In their journal entries, they related
stories of their own parents' divorce or of friends'
situations.
"It's that whole phenomenon of a divorced family that
just really confuses a lot of kids," says Gorlin, who grew up in New City in
Rockland County.
Gorlin's parents split when she was 3. Her poem detailed
her pain in seeing her father, a man she barely knew, each
weekend.
"Who is this image before my eyes who looks
so much like me I am careful of what I say not really sure
why His opinion should not matter but it does As it does
every week"
Today, Gorlin says she and her father have a great
relationship, and it seems funny to read the poem, which she wrote as a
high-school sophomore.
"It is a poem I'm proud of," she says.
"At the same time, I feel like, because it's such a personal subject, I feel
as if (it were) a page in my diary, and now everybody can see
it."
What did her students at Henninger think of her
writing?
"They thought it was a bad poem," she
says.
Corbett, 21, who grew up in Westford, Mass., wrote a short but
detailed description of sitting on a couch and watching television with her
crush. She watches him more than the television screen then and sees something
she can't bear.
"His knee is touching my pant leg and it feels like a
good dream. He shifts his position and now I can see what earlier I hoped I had
imagined. On the other side, she is also gazing up at him. Their hands are
tangled together like a big knot of unity. I brace myself as my heart crumbles to
the floor, and only hope that while she looks into his eyes, she is seeing
in him what I see."
Though Corbett says she doesn't relate to these
feelings anymore, she thinks many teens can.
"I think it's good that
it's in there because people in high school probably still have those
emotions," she says.
Dwyer, 19, chose her topic, drunken driving, to
educate other teens about how it can ruin lives.
"I feel hot tears
burn in my eyes and course down my face. I wasn't close to Jaime. I used to think
you had to be really close to someone to mourn their death. This is not true. I
only saw her once a year. She was older. Though at that second, all I could
think about was how young she was - too young to die. A life still to
lead."
Dwyer, who graduated from Auburn High School, closed her essay
by declaring that her cousin taught her an important lesson - to never drink and
drive or get into a car with someone who has.
"That's a difficult
situation to go through, and it's a good lesson to learn," she
says.
Teen Ink PO Box 30 Newton, MA 02461 (617) 964-6800 editor@teenink.com
Copyright 2008 by Teen Ink, The 21st Century and The Young Authors Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the written
permission of the publisher: The Young Authors Foundation, Inc.
Teen Ink is a national teen magazine, book and website featuring
teen writing, information, art, photos, poetry, teen issues and more. All
articles are written by teen authors who are students at schools. The monthly
print magazine is appropriate for any teenager -- teenagers age 13 to 19
attending secondary school: junior high school, middle school and high school.
This publication is used by professional people including English teachers,
writing teachers, language arts instructors, journalism teachers, school
newspaper advisors, librarians, guidance counselors, K-12 principals in addition
to the PTA or PTO. Each issue of Teen Ink magazine contains a wide variety of
student work: we publish nonfiction, fiction, poems, community service, sports,
heroes, interviews, college essays, college reviews, book reviews, concert
reviews, movie reviews, music reviews, video reviews, video game reviews, the
environment, opinion, sports, pets, cars, automobiles, travel and culture, jobs
and money, health issues, artwork, photographs, cartoons, short stories, essays,
writing contests, a college directory and the website also has a bulletin board
and resources for teens and educators. Subjects include racism,
eating disorders, depression, death, suicide, family, relationships, jobs,
grandparents, violence, the college process, college information, colleges,
driving, self esteem, the arts, movies and more. Teen Ink is also a book series
published by HCI Teens. Subjects covered in the book include Friends, Fitting In,
Love, Challenges, Family, Heroes, Loss and Memories. Teen Ink was established in
1989 as The 21st Century magazine by The Young Authors Foundation, a nonprofit
organization. More than 25,000 teens have been published in the magazine and its
companion Poetry Journal. Teen Ink runs a London Summer Program for teenage writers.
