EMERGING ARTIST: A PROFILE OF A YOUNG ARTIST
Everyone says they have a book in them, and they do, in a way. We are each a character in our own story; we have hopes, desires, and misbeliefs about the world around us—and maybe even about ourselves.
That’s what a story is: an expression of what makes us human, in its ugliest, truest form. The way we, as humans, relate to our stories has always fascinated me—how we project ourselves onto figments of our imaginations, because it’s easier to watch an extension of one’s self solve our problems than to do it ourselves.
I’ve been writing since I was nine years old (I’m almost 16 now). A lot of people ask me what I wrote when I was starting out. Short stories? Poetry? Kids’ books? Nope! One day, at the ripe old age of nine, I told my mom, “I’m going to write a book.” And even though I could hardly spell and hated reading, I sat down with a pencil and paper and tried my hand at a story. After several hours locked away in my room, I emerged with 12 pages of a story about my cats. I still have it today, although it’s barely legible.
After that, I took it to my laptop, rewrote what I already had, and continued from there. I spent hours on Masterclass and YouTube, learning the art of storytelling.
By the time I was nine and a half, I had the ideas of conflict, motive, backstory, and the hero’s journey all crammed up in my little brain, along with over four hours of lectures from Neil Gaiman.
My first manuscript came to a grand total of 11821 words and 39 pages. After that, I decided to go bigger. I wanted to publish a novel. So I did.
Wayward Fox was self-published when I was 12 years old. My second novel, titled The Keeper’s Garden, has been in the editing process since November, and I hope to send it off to one of the Big Five publishers at the end of this summer—a lofty goal!
A lot of my inspiration for the stories I tell comes from my childhood. Wayward Fox was about the courage it takes to leave behind everything you know, and The Keeper’s Garden is about the courage it takes to come back to it all. (The stories themselves are not related to each other.)
Writing The Keeper’s Garden helped me discover a lot about myself and how the way I was raised affects the way I see the world. For writers, the experiences we collect in our effort of growing up can shape our craft drastically.
I’ve really started to appreciate what an author must have gone through to write a story, because all the characters you see walking across those pages are little broken pieces of the writer themself.
In January 2025, I entered a youth fiction contest through the Comox Valley Writers’ Society and NIC. It was open to anyone under the age of 25 and it was a timed challenge—we were given three hours, a computer, five specific words to include, and an “unusual place” for the character.
My story, “Congratulations,” is about a girl set to go off to university in the fall. She struggles with commercialized ideas of success, like “In order to lead a good life you need to do well in school” or “We always need to know what we want to do with our lives.” This topic hits close to home for me, as I was unschooled up until Grade 8, when I decided to brave public school.
A lot of people like to ask, “Who do you want to be when you’re older?” The question we need to ask is: “Who do you want to be right now?” I want to collect more experiences. I want to inspire. I want to create. And, most importantly, I want to keep writing.
“I Think About The Word Success. About What It Means. Maybe I’m Too Afraid Of Leaving Everything Behind To Allow Myself To Grow Up. Maybe It’s Okay That I’m Not Quite An Adult Yet, Maybe It’s Okay That In Many Ways I Am Just A Kid.”
—From “Congratulations”
