Why I've Always Wanted to be a Writer

Ever since I was little, I've always wanted a career as a writer. I think it's really fun for me to craft my own stories and worlds. At the age of ten, where I did my own school newspaper called The Backpack News. It wasn't a work of art, but it also wasn't bad for a ten-year-old, either. It had short stories that I wrote myself, a few current events, like birthdays and homework, and reviews for TV episodes (particularly of The Simpsons), movies (Bridge to Terabithia), and restaurants (Fuddruckers). I would later go on to working for my school newspapers and literary magazine in middle school (movie reviews and quizzes, respectively) and for part of high school as well.

Also, in the summer before 11th grade, I wrote a passage for the Autism File about how my family celebrates the holidays. (I'm lucky enough to celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas, so I talked about both holidays.) I even got a money check for it!

I'm also writing some stories and movie scripts for myself currently. One is about a famous actor who becomes a schoolteacher, called Hollywood High, In another Spygirl, is about a girly girl who's a spy and fights takeoffs of famous classic characters, from literature and movies, like Harry Jekyll and Darian Gray. I also write fanfiction, stories and scripts for the movie and TV franchises I really like, like Despicable Me (spinoff-type series featuring the main characters-Margo, Edith, and Agnes-going to school and doing normal kid stuff.)

I'm really appalled at the fact that Hollywood is so low on ideas, they're resorting to remakes of already well-known movies like Carrie or Robocop. I want to send in my scripts to famous movie companies and filmmakers. I’ve always been intrigued by film, be it comedy, romance, musicals, or action. Magical stories with action, adventure, fun songs, cool characters, or any combination of the above. Better yet, in the movies I watched as a kid, such as Blank Check and Are We There Yet?, the main characters dealt with relatable situations, albeit with some rather unrealistic elements, so I thought “Wow! These characters are going through the same things I am!” In other words, movies were telling kids like me “Your life, only with different people, and cooler.” I enjoy watching movies on Turner Classic Movies with my parents. My favorite movies from TCM include: The Man Who Came to Dinner, The Mouse That Roared, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Spencer Tracy version), The Wizard of Oz, and The Way We Were. I also enjoy watching movies based on my favorite books, such as Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, Animal Farm, Sherlock Holmes, Chronicles of Narnia and Percy Jackson (both the first and second movies.)

In addition, I like to write for my own web-series called Stuck on the Bus. My school-bus used to be really early, even on delayed openings, and then sit in the school parking lot, so I would spend my time recording myself talking about random stuff, like spring break (I wanted to finish my book, but my friend Elizabeth came over, and on Saturday, I went to Six Flags with Corey), books I’m reading (I’m reading Hamlet for school, and I remember as a kid I read a kiddie version which was like an abridged version of Hamlet, and there was one picture of Ophelia going crazy and they were all like kiddie drawings), my favorite movies (For example in my review for No Reservations: This woman has to take care of her orphaned niece whose mom died and she has these mixed feelings for this chef. Who could ever have mixed feelings for Aaron Eckhart? He is such a cutie).

My dreams of wanting to be a writer faltered when I was a senior in high school- I had a weird compulsion to read too slowly to tolerate, let alone handle reading, and often came home too mentally exhausted to read anything. We got a "reading doctor" to help take care of it, however, and by the time I got to college in 2014, I found myself in an environment where my writing skills could truly grow and flourish, and boy did they flourish! During my freshman year of college, I published my first (but certainly not my last!) book, It's Not A Perfect World But I'll Take It: 50 Life Lessons for Teens Like Me Who Are Sort of (You Know) Autistic. It was more of a narrative in the form of short stories, however- my next book, Manimal Crackers, is more standard fictional- albeit with a lot from my own life!

Look out world, here I come!