Thank You, Teen Ink

Teen Ink has helped me mature in more ways than one. Before I started writing for the website, I was a 13-year-old girl with hopes of becoming an author. I was convinced that all it took was putting down a few words on a page and calling it a story or a book. I was imagining myself living in the spotlight as the next J.K. Rowling. I was already practicing giving autographs. I knew that I loved to write. I loved to create characters and develop them into protagonists. I loved the idea of controlling their every move, every decision. I felt like a god. I was six when I wrote my first story and I haven’t stopped since.

But now, thanks to Teen Ink, I know that it takes a whole lot more than scribbling a sentence down to create a masterpiece. I realize that I want more from life than being an author. I still love it. I love the thrill of sending in my pieces. Most are bad, some are okay, and maybe one is good. I push myself; I try to make my work better by one decimal place every time. And it works. I realized that I can combine writing with my future, keeping it important but not dominant.

So, with all my heart, thank you. I discovered thousands of other teens with remarkable talent. I read their work with passion and, let’s face it, envy. Literature can be as public as it is private. I discovered this with Teen Ink. No one else had been able to show me this before.