When I was a child I loved doing book reviews for school, it was so fun talking about a book and designing the pages of my workbook. However, one day when I was slightly older, I was reading a Sabrina the Teenage Witch book (one of my favourite television programmes) and my teacher said that it was rubbish and that I should not be reading it. Instead, I was given The Railway Children which as a child, I did not enjoy. This put me off reading for a long time (and is why I am an advocate for letting children read what they want to read because they are still reading). I ended up not enjoying reading books for class and missing years of reading so many books. I remember picking up Twilight, I think because everyone was reading it. Then my friends introduced me to manga which I really enjoyed and then I progressed on to reading more young adult and adult fiction. During this time, I was writing. I had written a poem in class and got the bug for it. I think I loved poetry because I was writing about what I saw in the world around me and putting it into a rhythm that sounded beautiful. Finally, I had found my talent, something that I enjoyed and that I could do. I started writing short stories and larger ones. I remember writing what I thought at the time was a whole novel, in fifteen days, and then realising that there was a massive plot hole right at the beginning of the story. I kept reading and writing. I enjoyed reading because I have always loved stories and it still seems so magical to me that a whole world can be contained within a book. I love writing because when I write it feels like I’m pulling something from deep within me; I am doing something that feels like me. It is hard work which uses a lot of mental energy but I love it. It feels wonderful to write and although it is not always easy, I would not change it. In fact, a world without writing seems so sad to me.
