All across the U.S., popular authors such as John Green, Veronica Roth, and Suzanne Collins are making millions off of best-sellers. Following their example, many young students write their own stories, and post them online to story sharing sites such as Wattpad.com. These faceless teen writers of Seminole deserve to be recognized for their work. Just because they are young does not mean they are any less skilled at writing, and at times on par with larger authors.

Junior Emma Torregrosa says, “[It’s] unique to see people who actually enjoy writing, because we’re forced to write so much here in High School.”

On a story a sharing site such as Wattpad, there are stories who have views going into the millions, and several of them have been written by young authors in high school. One such author is Aaisha Sanaullah, a 2013 graduate of Seminole High school, whose story, “Confessions of a Muslim Girl,” has over 2.1 million views.

Sanaullah says that she started writing the story her sophomore year of high school, and is still continuing today.

“Writing is taught in a very formulaic way in school and it beats the beauty out of it. Writing at a young age is disconcerting because it requires going against everything you’ve been taught in school.” says Sanaullah, commenting on how different free writing is from school writing. “There are less rules. You’re taking a shot in the dark. Sometimes I still don’t know what I’m doing but that’s the beauty and the fun of it.”

Many young writers also seek to gain the fame of popular young adult authors, but some believe this style just takes away from the joy of writing.

“Finding a topic that’s interesting enough to write about is hard so I say when inspiration hits, take it and run,” says Sanaullah. “One mistake that I see a lot with young writers though is that they create characters and then try to form a plot around that. I think the approach should be completely different. You have to find an idea or concept that intrigues you first and then the plot and characters are secondary” . The point of writing is to share your inner stories and thoughts with others, not to gain fame, which many young writers have forgotten.

Sadly, only a few of these writers are recognized by their peers and others as serious writers, whether here at Seminole or nationwide. Check out some of these student written articles today by going to sites such as wattpad.com, and discover the hidden stories written by the faceless writers of Seminole today.