I started writing when I was in elementary school. I remember those pages with the wide margins very vividly. But it was when I was a teenager that my writing became less about fun and more about necessity. Those adolescent years are hard for anyone, and especially hard for a quiet, skinny girl who did well enough in school to be considered a total loser. I wrote to vent. I wrote to escape. I wrote to survive.
Buzzfeed just posted 24 Photos of Famous Authors When They Were Coming Of Age. It makes me smile to see those faces. Maybe their teen years weren’t so great either; maybe they were. Regardless, they probably had no idea what literary successes lie ahead for them.
These are a few of my favorites.
James Joyce
Mary Karr
Jack Kerouac
Haruki Murakami
Sylvia Plath
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
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