An Open Letter to YA Authors Everywhere

​My name is Maire, I'm 22 and an aspiring YA author. Growing up I always loved to read.  I read in the car on the way to dance, I read at my desk at school while I was supposed to be doing schoolwork, I stayed up late into the early hours of the morning with the inability to sleep until I finished.  In a nutshell, wherever I was you'd probably find a book in my possession.I was the binge reader. It didn't take long after I picked a book up that I was closing it to start another.

Friendship, true friendship, at a young age is hard to come by.  People are constantly growing and changing, trying to figure out who they are. So, when you're young, friends come in and out of your life consistently. One day they're your best friend and the next you ignore them as if they're a complete stranger. Middle school and high school are challenging times, especially for girls.  Everyone's trying to fit in, everyone just wants so desperately to be liked and to be accepted. And, for me, during those times I turned to your words.

I found solace in the lives of your fictional characters. It was second nature to me, like turning on a light switch. The minute I read the words on the page, I was safe.  

I just wanted to take the time to thank you. Thank you for bringing to life stories that were meant to be shared, that needed to be shared.  Thank you for your incredible ability to string words together so beautifully I can't help but read the same pages over and over again. When my life overwhelms me I find comfort in the world(s) you've created. 

​Thank you for giving me a place in your imagination to find myself. Thank you for welcoming me into your creative world and allowing me to get to know the characters that you spent countless hours, days, and months formulating into the fictional lessons they became. Thank you for forcing me to understand the importance of details, intricate details of every sense, so I could fully immerse myself into the adventures you set out for me to take a chance on.

​Again and again, I've fallen in love with the way(s) in which you develop a story. Your innate ability to transform words into sentences, and sentences into entire novels that captivate my world is inspiring. Thank you for giving me characters to love, to hate and to feel second-hand embarrassment for. Thank you for understanding that flawed characters are more beautiful than the idea of perfection. Thank you for the laughter, the tears, and the endless smiles when a character finally gets the ending they deserved, an ending that is true to who they are.

Thank you for the love stories that evoke such strong emotions that I hope my future readers will have the opportunity to experience through my own words someday.

Thank you for pursuing your craft and never giving up on the stories that burned inside of you. Thank you for giving me the courage to follow in your literary footsteps.  Thank you for taking rejection as a sign to worker harder rather than that of failure. 

Thank you for believing in your power of storytelling.
                                                   
​                                                 Never forget the essence of your spark!