Postcard For Reader

Today is my twentieth birthday.

Because I write all of my posts and schedule them in advance, it's a weird thing to think about. You'll be seeing this on my twentieth birthday.

I'm still writing this when I'm nineteen.

And, to an extent, I don't really care that I'm turning twenty. It's the big two-oh, your life goes down from here, these are the best days of your life -- none of it really matters to me. I know that I'm not going to feel differently. If I'm lucky, I'll never stop feeling like I do now: spirited and like I can take on any challenge the world throws at me; like there's limitless potential in the world; like anything can change.

But part of me is sad.

Because, as of today, for the first time, WORD for Teens... is not being run by an actual teen.

This is strange to me.

I started WORD when I was, oh, thirteen or fourteen. So long ago now that I can't remember. I grew up with it. It shaped my teenage years - who I talked to, how I learned, what I did.

And, without a doubt, it did it for the better. I learned to read more critically outside of a school context. I learned how to reach out and talk to people, how to develop the skills to talk online. My writing improved drastically. I made friends.

And that was just the start. Working on WORD taught me how to go out and find the information I needed, whether it was through hunting on Google and Goodreads or by contacting authors and publishers. I learned how to educate myself about LGBTQ representation and slut-shaming and white-washing and all sorts of things I never would have paid attention to otherwise - things that I now feel passionately about.

I would never have had the chance to attend BookExpo America or Comic-Con. I would never have been able to host a chat with Jennifer Castle and Nova Ren Suma and Kimberly Purcell at my local bookstore. I would never have been quoted on the back of False Covenant or featured in Read, Remember, Recommend for Teens. I would never have been on the Children's Book Council's forum event "From the teen's perspective" or been quoted in Publisher's Weekly.

I probably wouldn't have pursued a double-major in English and Public Relations, probably wouldn't have gotten into the college I'm in and definitely wouldn't have gotten by fabulous internship at Bloomsbury from this past summer.

I wouldn't have gotten to know (and meet, in some cases!) Donna or Julie or Julie or Harmony or Suzanne or Nova or Mitali or Jennifer or Cassandra or Lisa and so many other people. A list too long to create.

I didn't know what the point of this post was when I sat down to write it, but I think I do now.

Thank you.

Thank you for sticking with me for however many days, weeks, months, years you've been with me. Through my terrible one-paragraph reviews to my detailed six-paragraph ones. Through my interviews with T.A. Barron and Cassandra Clare and Julie Kagawa. Through my giveaways and my feminist rants and my crazy ideas and all of it.

Thank you.

My life wouldn't have been the same without it.