I'm a big believer in giving teens a voice and opportunities to share their stories and experiences.

There's this incredible pressure, especially on teens, to be perfect, look right, have the right clothes, date the right people, get into the right school, have the right home life, and so on.

Teen readers can see aspects of themselves in the teen authors, which in a way, validates their experiences.

I think it can be incredibly powerful for a teen to be able to put their story out there for others to soak in, learn from, relate to. In some ways, it validates their experience, which for teens (or for anybody, really) is a pretty huge deal.

Letting go is the hardest part... but you have to look at it through their eyes and realize the pain you caused them is that same pain you feel now.

Once the initial excitement wears off and it's time to sit down to write, the authors are usually still very eager, but the reality of doing the work can be a little daunting.

I'm a big believer in giving teens a voice and opportunities to share their stories and experiences.