Literature taught me that I wasn't alone, that I could become a writer if I worked at it, that my story mattered. Whether a young reader becomes a writer or not, they deserve to know that their story, whatever it may be, is important.

Like me as a teen - and like many teenagers now - my characters are at a peculiar crossroads in their lives. They desperately seek freedom. But at the same time, they are constantly thwarted.

As a teenager, I felt so hemmed in and trapped, both by the place I lived and the expectations others had about school, college, and a future career.

Sabaa Tahir Quotes