Have you ever dreamed of being a journalist but wondered how to make it happen? We talked to reader Lauren, aged 16, who is well on the way to making her come true...
Lauren says:
From a young age, I've always loved the English language - everything from reading a whole book in one day to writing story after story myself. As I got older, the interest deepened and my style of writing changed, but I still loved words.
The first time I ever wrote an article was for a competition with ChildLine - I was chosen as one of eight finalists and travelled to London where I met with other aspiring young writers and found out more about journalism. I soon realised that was what I wanted to do, and before long i was writing my next article. When i was published for the first time, it felt strange and amazing to see something I'd written in a national newspaper, knowing that millions of children could be reading it; that made me feel really proud of my achievement.
A year on, I am still writing for ChildLine's First News newspaper, as well as many others... B**P, Kettle and CultNoise. I love writing for different publications because they all require different skills, allowing me to learn different writing techniques and improve my ability as a writer. When Cathy Cassidy visited my school recently, I took the opportunity to get an interview with her. We spoke about where she got ideas for her books, and how she got involved in journalism, because Cathy had a magazine journalism background before she began writing books. As well as being displayed on my school website, the article was also published in B**P which was exciting!
I hope to go on being published in the future and also get into Oxbridge to study English, with a post graduate degree in journalism. Hopefully, at the end of it all, I may be able to write for some of the most popular newspapers and publications in the country!
Has Lauren's story inspired YOU to follow your own dreams? COMMENT BELOW to tell us, or to share your own stories of writing success!
Lauren says:
From a young age, I've always loved the English language - everything from reading a whole book in one day to writing story after story myself. As I got older, the interest deepened and my style of writing changed, but I still loved words.
The first time I ever wrote an article was for a competition with ChildLine - I was chosen as one of eight finalists and travelled to London where I met with other aspiring young writers and found out more about journalism. I soon realised that was what I wanted to do, and before long i was writing my next article. When i was published for the first time, it felt strange and amazing to see something I'd written in a national newspaper, knowing that millions of children could be reading it; that made me feel really proud of my achievement.
I hope to go on being published in the future and also get into Oxbridge to study English, with a post graduate degree in journalism. Hopefully, at the end of it all, I may be able to write for some of the most popular newspapers and publications in the country!
Has Lauren's story inspired YOU to follow your own dreams? COMMENT BELOW to tell us, or to share your own stories of writing success!
As I was a child, all I ever wanted to do was writing. I wrote stories, fairytales, articles, comics, I went to writer´s competetions. Then I had an opportunity to write in a local newspaper. It had to be something about how children see our town and some situations in it. I was ten and my dream just came true. But then something went wrong, and the manager of the newspapers stopped responding. I didn´t see a single message from him anymore. And it was the end of my writing. I still feel perfect writing a story or an article, but I´ve never found courage to do something really big and really important again. :)
ReplyDeleteWow! I love writing too. I hope to be a novel writer when I'm older doing books for teenage girls. Cathy Cassidy inspires me and so does Lauren.
ReplyDelete