I’m a published author. I wrote a book last year and published it on Amazon in December. I’m also an actress. I’ve been doing theater since the fifth grade. The arts and creativity have been important to me my entire life. My book is a post-apocalyptic novel about a young boy trying to find his mother. It’s about 250 pages, and it’s currently the most important thing I believe I’ve ever written. The book has multiple themes and messages, all of which combine to become a message about community. It takes a village to save the world. Some characters were failed by their communities, and go on to make changes for others. My book already is supposed to do all things stated in the prompt, but I’ll be the first to admit it is not my best work. I want to improve my skills so I can write something that everyone can enjoy. I want anyone to be able to take a lesson out of it. I want to make a difference. I am also minoring in Musical Theater. So far, I have been in twelve shows as of March of 2026, and am currently in the middle of my second production of Into the Woods. Theater has always been my passion. It is where I have the most talent, whereas my writing is more merit based. I believe my performances have already impacted the world. I plan to use my musical theatre classes to learn not only how to become a more effective actress, but also to possibly learn how to direct a show. My mother has been a director in three shows that I have been in. She’s an inspiration to me, and I want to be able to direct others the way she does. My vision is for my art to be seen by millions. I do all of it myself. In a modern world where many things are done with generative AI, it can be a struggle to find anything with only human work. Not only am I completely against ever using Artificial Intelligence in my art, I also have never made anyone else do it for me. Everything I do, I do myself. My book was written and edited entirely by me. I illustrated the cover and put together the formatting. I work by myself, and I want that to inspire others to do the same. My work is not finished. I’m still writing poetry and short stories today, but who knows what I might be working on tomorrow. I win playwright competitions. I get my art into the high school art show. I receive gold medals at state-wide choir competitions. I outperform in creative fields, and I am never going to stop trying my best. People will see my art and realize everything I went through to make it and they will be inspired. They will be inspired to work for their earnings. They will be inspired to help others in their communities, and they will be inspired to create their own works.

I was raised by my mom. My dad was around for the first 15 years of my life, but he was mentally unstable at best. When I think of the person who raised me to be the person I am today, I think of my mom. My mother is an actress and a singer. She didn’t get the chance to finish college. She was swept away from New Jersey to Indiana by my dad, and many of her dreams never came true. Despite all the unfortunate circumstances my mother went through, she managed to stay a positive figure in my life. When my dad had a mental break over two years ago, she stayed strong for me and my siblings. My mom taught me to be good and stay strong. My mom still does theater. She has so much to do and still finds time to do the thing she loves most. Her drive inspires me daily. I know that my path is in writing. I published a book on Amazon over the winter, and it told a story about family that I felt like I had to tell. The book is about a boy who loses his only parent and tries to get her back. I couldn’t imagine a world without my mother in it. She’s my role model and one of my closest friends. When I was 13, it was her who I asked to baptize me. She was the first mother to baptize her child in my church, a trend which continued afterwards. She raised me in my faith and encourages me to grow with Jesus. I want to write more stories about people like my mom. I want to raise my children the way she did. She taught me to be kind and to love. She accepted me when I thought no one else would, let alone my christian mother. She took care of me at a time that I thought she wouldn’t be able to. That’s the type of person I want to be. A world where I can use my writing to do good and help people? I see it. I see myself as a well known teen author. I would be someone whose story is well known; Who writes novels that reflect the type of person I want to be. The type of person my mother raised me to be. It’s my biggest dream to be someone people know to be good. Someone relatable. My story reflects my goals. It’s my purpose.

My dad has Bipolar disorder. This has affected me since the earliest stages of my youth. He would have highs and lows often, and it was sometimes hard to tell who the real “daddy” was. I remember him making new projects and stories with me, getting my hopes up, and spending time with me, before dropping everything and forgetting about the hopes and dreams he’d crushed. It was hard. I loved him so much, but he couldn’t be the dad or husband he needed to be. He verbally abused and traumatized my mother. He showed my sisters and I the most deplorable movies and shows at ages so early you would think we might forget, but I didn’t. In 2023 he had a manic episode that left my family homeless for over a month while he destroyed our house and made it unsafe to live in. My dad’s mental health taught me a lot. The most important thing to me was the mantra I had engrained into my mind. “Stay Medicated.” It was a warning my mom had jokingly given to my older sister when she was diagnosed with ADHD, and it was true. Mental Health is so important. The medication doctors give you should not be taken for granted. One of my boundaries in relationships is now that I won’t date anyone who ignores or sells their mental health medication. I don’t want to go through the same trauma my mother endured for nearly two decades. My dad is still in a bad place. I cut ties with him a few months ago because I knew it wasn’t worth it anymore, but my bond with others couldn’t be higher with my family. I lived in a hotel with my mom and baby brother for weeks, and I don’t know what I would do without them. My siblings and I have a stronger bond because of the ring they gave me on my 16th birthday, something my dad was meant to do, but couldn’t because of what he’d done to himself. So far I am the only of my full siblings to not be diagnosed with any kind of mental illness. It’s only a matter of time before I’m evaluated and someone tells me there really is something different about me, but I’m prepared for it. My autistic little brother and my ADHD older sister will be with me and inspire me every day. My mental health experience has helped me with my creative pursuits quite a bit. My stories often include characters with mental health problems. I published a book in December that had many themes of mental health in it. One of the side characters has ADHD, one is nonverbal, the secondary protagonist has autism, and the antagonist had bipolar disorder, as he is inspired by my dad (though the character is not truly evil and his mental illness is not the reason for his antagonism). Mental health is important to me, and I intend to continue writing characters with diverse mental illnesses. My goal is to spread awareness and acceptance, and I don’t see that going away any time soon.

I was terrified to tell my parents what I felt. I had known since the second grade that I could love everyone. I remember it vividly. It was the Easter concert and I had a cute little duet with a boy I had been “dating” for months. I finished the duet and went back to my class behind the risers, who wouldn’t perform for a few minutes. When it was finally our turn, we lined up to get to the bleachers. As we were walking out, a girl named Hailey reached a hand out behind her and I reached out for it without thinking. She was the first crush I could never pull up the guts to confess to. From then on I continued dating boys until middle school. I went to a dance with a girl named Violet, but she said she couldn’t in the middle of the dance. I struggled with it throughout middle school, but one thing helped me through it. I wrote stories about all the relationships I wished I could have. A fairy yearning for a young maiden, the tale of a fox princess avoiding marriage, a Christmas story about two young girls who fall in love at Christmas, a story where a man falls in love with his savior who simply can’t love that way… these stories I wrote meant so much to me. I tried to show my dad once and what he told me lingers in my head. “Only 1% of the population is like that. You really expect me to believe that princess is a boy now?” I told my mom in the car that I was going on a date with a girl named Juliana. She asked me if I thought I was gay, and I told her I was pan. That it didn’t matter to me what a person was like. I called it pansexual at the time. She told me I was a bit too young to make that decision. I was thirteen. Still, though, she told me to wait and see how life changes me, and if anything changes as I age. When I was seventeen I cut ties with my dad, who had destroyed what little dignity he had in a manic break that left my family homeless for over a month. Before I did that I wanted to reassure to them that I was pansexual. My mom accepted me fully, and my dad, a broken man, didn’t say anything at that McDonald’s where we had visitation. During holidays he has tried to win back my favor with gifts. He sends me necklaces with pan symbols I don’t care for. He has literally only sent me things related to topics I had shown interest in a month before I cut ties. Coming out to my parents was hard, but I was lucky enough to have a mother in theater who would accept me without issue. Sometimes I hear comments from friends and family who are against me in every way, but I block it out. It’s the people in my life who accept me and relate to me who I trust with my identity. Last year I wrote a book that was published in December. The book has no relationships, but I wanted the subtle themes of queer youth to be clear. I put all of my experiences into writing, it’s part of what makes me, well, me. Writing stories and poetry with queer themes is something I always have and always will do. My story is queer, and I love it for that.

My goal is to be in theater for the rest of my life. Acting, directing, singing, and writing are all passions of mine. Theater brings out the best in me and I want to bring more of it into the world. I’ve been in theater since 5th grade and have been in twelve total productions both in and out of school. I started in the kids choir in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream coat and went on to perform in three middle school productions. In high school my mother directed the fall play and spring musical my freshman year, but unfortunately had to step away. I decided not to do theater at the school and began pursuing community theater opportunities outside of the school system. The first community production I was in was called “Triangle” by Ben Asaykwee, a local playwright and musician. The next month I auditioned for Into the Woods at the depot theater and performed as Little Red Riding Hood in November. The next summer, I auditioned for Ride the Cyclone, the student led production at my school. I got the role of Constance Blackwood, and many have told me it was my best performance yet. I did one more show at the high school before deciding to drop it completely. Since then I have been a part of three more shows in the community. Outside of acting I have also written a play of my own. I called it “Echo” and it was an interpretation of the classic greek myth. I submitted it to the Alley Theater’s Greenberg Competition in Anderson Indiana. I won a $500 prize and my play was performed a year later. I plan to major in creative writing, and minor in Musical Thester. I plan to specialize in acting and singing. Ultimately I wish to participate in theater forever. It has been a part of my life since before I was born. Everyone in my family acts. Even my dad, who I no longer speak to, was in theater for multiple hears before his mental break. My family inspires me to pursue theater in many ways. My parents fell in love through theater, as did my sister and her husband. My best friend is more financially stable than I am, and she plans to attend some of the most prestigious theater colleges in the country. I don’t have that privilege, but I have the drive and the passion to take what I can even without the financial means. I want to be an inspiration.