I fell in love with reading at a young age. My parents introduced me to classic children’s books like Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss and Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web and Margaret Sidney’s The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew topped my favorites as I grew older, and I anxiously awaited every new release in a long list of beloved series, including Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, and Encyclopedia Brown.

Finally, I’ll forever proclaim Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn as an all-time favorite read!

I was in the sixth grade when I realized I could be a storyteller, too. I created a pop-up book about a family of mice and their trip to an amusement park. Since I’d never been on a rollercoaster (and still haven’t), I used my imagination to travel to places I wouldn’t dare go in real life. My teacher praised my tale of “The Whiskers Family” and made me believe I could conquer anything through the magic of creative writing.

That’s why I write—to explore life’s ups and downs and try to make sense of the human experience.