What Happens When A Child Sees Themselves As A Writer?

I’d like to say that I remember the exact moment when I put pen to paper in Grade 5 and knew that my life had changed. 

But I don’t.

I just know that it was in Grade 5 when writing was introduced to me as a way to get all of the jumbled thoughts out of my head. A way for me to get creative without being judged. A way for me to be myself without questioning who that was. 

Putting words on paper at the age of 10 meant that I could turn ordinary days into magic. I could turn tedious tasks into full-on adventures. I could let my imagination run wild and still be productive. A lesson that I am once again beginning to learn and bring back into my life. 

A lesson that triggered a wildly exciting thought for me after a psychologist appointment that I had about a month ago. It was in that room that I realized who I wanted to be and why. I was back in that Grade 5 classroom, sitting at a desk writing in a notebook. Smiling and content. Knowing that because of my teacher, who took the time to show me what writing could mean, I wanted to be a writer. 

And as I walked out of my appointment, it wasn’t a writer that I wanted to be anymore. I wanted to be like my teacher. I wanted to give a child the gift of writing. I wanted to show a child that writing can give them a place to be free and creative. I wanted to be a writer who showed someone else the power of writing. 

And so, that is what I am deciding to do. But what does that actually mean?

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A CHILD SEES THEMSELVES AS A WRITER?

Words are everywhere. Written words are everywhere, especially as a child spends his day in a classroom, but not all words are created equally. 

Kids spend time writing paragraphs and assignments every day, but most of the time, that doesn’t make them feel like a writer. It makes them feel like a student. A student just trying to get through their homework. 

Sometimes that can bring excitement, but honestly, I think most of the time, the words that they are spending the most time writing are just to get good grades. There are three pieces that I want to focus on: confidence, ownership, and possibility. 

CONFIDENCE

Imagine seeing their eyes light up because they can use their creativity in a new way. Use words to build a story, to build a new world, to explore the ideas and thoughts that they have. Something changes inside a child when they get to say…

I wrote this. This is my story. These are my ideas. And they matter. 

These are simple ideas that honestly, even as an adult, can be a struggle to remember. Just imagine the confidence a child can feel when they realize they can build a whole world using the ideas in their head. 

Confidence comes when a child realizes that there isn’t just one way to be; there isn’t just one correct way to answer a question. Confidence comes when they realize that their imagination has value. That their ideas do not have to look like everyone else’s. 

When a child can feel confident and build that confidence up, it affects every other aspect of their life. A skill that they will need when times get hard, because we all know that they will.

Confidence isn’t about doing everything perfectly all of the time. It is about showing up, doing the hard stuff, even when you have no idea how to do it. Writing builds this type of confidence. 

When you start with a blank page and turn it into a story, you have nothing but your ideas. Random words that you string together to create something out of nothing. 

OWNERSHIP

By the time kids are in Grade 5, they have written and completed many assignments. They know how to write, but they may not have yet been able to explore all that writing has to offer. 

Imagine now that you are a parent of a ten-year-old. A ten-year-old who comes home from school excited to show you a story that they have been working on. A story that will eventually be published as a book. 

You listen as your child reads their story out loud to you. What do you see? 

You see their eyes light up as the idea, their world, their story is brought to life. 

You see a smile form on their face as they read their words to you. 

You see them wiggle and bounce around because they are excited to hear what you think about the story that they created. 

What do you hear? 

You hear the excitement in their voice as they explain what is happening in their story.

You hear how much thought they put into it when they tell you how they came up with the characters in their story.

You hear how proud they are of what they put on the paper.

This is why I created the Young Voices Club and the Young Voices Classroom Program. Through both programs, children are guided through creating their own stories, with the opportunity to see those stories become something tangible that they can hold in their hands.

I want to see a child light up when they begin to put words on paper. A child doesn’t have to dream of becoming a writer when they grow up. They just need the opportunity to see themselves as a creator. As someone capable of taking a blank page and filling it with something that didn’t exist before. As someone who can put life into a blank page. 

They aren’t just completing another writing assignment. They are bringing their imagination to life and working towards seeing their story in a book and becoming a published author. They are creating something that belongs only to them. Not something that they are being graded on, but an opportunity to bring their creativity to life. 

POSSIBILITY

Lately, I have been waking up, thinking about possibility more and more. I am a dreamer. I always have been, and I always will be. The word possibility makes my heart beat faster, and a smile comes to my face because who doesn’t want to believe in possibility?

I don’t know if any of these kids are going to grow up to become professional writers. But that’s not really the point. My Grade 5 teacher didn’t know where my writing would eventually take me. BUT that didn’t stop him from showing me the possibility of words. From showing me how creativity can take something boring and transform it. 

He gave me a piece of possibility before I had even known what that truly meant. This isn’t meant to create a classroom full of novelists. This is meant to give children an opportunity to discover what happens when their ideas are taken seriously. When they can remember to play with words and to get creative. 

And maybe that is the beautiful thing about possibility; it isn’t something that we outgrow.

Just imagine if you had someone give you a small piece of possibility. Just imagine if someone had allowed you to fill a blank page with the wonders of your imagination. Just imagine if you gave yourself that option now. 

Throw away the idea of perfection.

Throw away the idea that words don’t matter.

Throw away the idea that you don’t know how to write.

Just show up and see what happens when you put pen to paper and allow the words to flow freely. 

Maybe someone once gave you that permission. Maybe no one ever did. Either way, you can give it to yourself now. And if we’re lucky, maybe we can give a little piece of that possibility to a child, too.