I’ve always had an affinity for storytelling. When I was 9, my step cousin and I created our own country. The only thing I remember about the third grade was writing the first parts of stories about princesses and castles. Throughout middle school, if I had at least $7, I would buy a college ruled notebook and a gel pen to write in. There are story figments in my sketch pads, notebooks, desktop computers and even cell phones. My self-design major at Antioch College is Visual Storytelling, so as a junior, I decided to look back and read some of my older stories. The names that I gave myself were like masks. The way I wrote myself were reflections of my life, my interests and most importantly, my struggles with understanding myself and my place in the “real” world.

Persalana Lerman from Princess Persa the Sea Princess

+100 Imagination
Forged in the sixth grade from a love for Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series and a love to write stories of princesses and destiny, Princess Persa the Sea Princess was a self insert fanfiction that I wrote before I knew what fanfiction was. This was the first of many occurrences where my female protagonist has heterochromia, having pupils of different colors.

+200 Fangirl for Cody Simpson
Honorable mention to Cody Simpson, who I wrote to have two younger brothers that looked exactly like him but were closer to my age. One for me, one for my best friend. That’s friendship.

-500 Identity Damage
In the story of Percy Jackson, his absent father turns out to be the greek god Poseidon. With my own father being a drug addict and alcoholic and my stepfather at the time and I not getting along at all, the idea of a godly “white” father that contrasted the two most difficult people in my life sounded really nice. My friend even commented that I “really didn’t want to be black.”

-1000 Social Skills
As a poor black girl in the great wide world, I spent my time fantasizing over what life would like if I were special or important. I would talk out conversations on my walk home and I refused to be considered normal or average. I had to be the outcast, it was the only way I could be special.

Deathlyana from Princess Persa the Sea Princess

+300 Edgy Lord Points
Yes, at the end of the future best seller Princess Persa the Sea Princess, Persa becomes this dark and brooding teenager who only listens to Black Veil Brides and My Chemical Romance. In her Camp Half-blood cabin, she had a guitar stand and ball pythons as pets. Literally the coolest…

-1000000 Cringe Critical Damage
Do I even have to explain? Come on…

Coralina from the Silence, Vine High and more

+5000 Fairies and Junk
In my later middle school and early high school year, I began to read more modern teen fantasy books, such as The Mortal Instruments series and the House of Night series as well as continued my obsession with emo punk and other alternative music genres. I began to enjoy the imagery of forests and meadows, but also write about other worlds and magical destinies. It was also the first time I’d been introduced to metaphysical spirituality.

-600 Identity Damage
So many times, as a little chubby girl, I wrote myself to be this stunningly gorgeous character with a quiet and reserved personality. As the oldest child on all sides of my family, I’d written myself ten other brothers to protect me and baby me. But most importantly, I always wrote the character to be mixed.

Dakota from Destiny Bond

+1000 Wattpad Popularity
In eighth grade, a few of my friends and I started publishing stories on a website called Wattpad. Though they were very amateurly written, they were targeted to readers in our age range. Destiny Bond mimicked the romance within a werewolf community genre that was popular on the site at the time. Alpha and mates, you know, normal middle school stuff.

Candance Tipton from Candy Central Station Club

+200000000 Love of my Life
CCSC is my current passion project, though I no longer align myself with Candance’s character. First drafted when I was in tenth grade, CCSC was a way to write magical adventures with the friends that I was making that actually showed an interest in my writing.

I would get so excited to update a new chapter of CCSC, I’d read over it constantly to think of new things to show my friends. Even now, five years later, I still get random bursts of inspiration to write and draw amazing things for it. Despite disconnecting my self-image from Candance, CCSC is still the sole core of my passion and drive to be an artist. It was the one of the first stories that I wrote for others and to entertain others, rather than publishing works I’d write as an outlet of my constant daydreaming. I plan to publish the first chapter of the graphic novel adaptation Candy Central Station Club as my senior project.

I love my stories. Even though reading them made me cringe and I wasn’t too sure what I was trying to accomplish in my writing, it felt nostalgic to look back at when I was seemingly bursting with ideas, inspiration and most importantly, motivation. Now, that I have the skills and resources to make my stories my living, looking back and understanding myself as a writer, an illustrator and a storyteller is the key to being successful in my own eyes. It reminded me why I came to Antioch College.