I’ve known what I wanted to do since I was fifteen years old and I’ve been trying to make it as a writer since then. Right now I’m attempting to be known locally but to be honest there are, others who weren’t as lucky as I was and only figured out what they wanted to do later on in life. However for those who are in the same boat as me and want to become writers; I think it’s safe to say that it is hard to be noticed as a young writer within the older generation as because of our age and lack of experience it is almost as though some adults tend to use that as an excuse to not take us seriously.

Just recently I was approached by a young up and coming writer on Facebook who expressed his difficulty on being noticed within the older generation as he felt that the people who he spoke to did not really understand what he was attempting to portray within his work. He felt that it was easier to confide in me since I was within the same age group as he was. “No one really wants to help me. I just want you to read it...so that you give me honest impressions, about the book.” He says within his email. From that he tells me, his work touches on genres such as romance and fantasy which is what’s become popular as of late. This is a clear example of how serious us kids as soon to be writers are and the only thing we ask is if adults of today who are in the same field give us a chance to show you just how talented we can be. Even if it is not as great a novel as we thought it was after we have written it we would still appreciate some assistance or direction as to how we can improve in our later years to come.

We tend to look up to authors who have made it in Zimbabwe more so than authors who have made it overseas. This reason being that if we can start small and become popular in our home land then we can slowly gain reassurance that there’s a chance we can make it to other places as well. These authors such as Alexandra Fuller who was originally born and attended boarding school in Zimbabwe but her other nationalities include the united states and the united kingdom ; wrote her first book while she was still at school which was entitled Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, which touched on a memoir of her life with her family living all around Africa. She was able to gain popularity from that book when she won the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize in 2002. Other notable awards she had won for several books she had written include the 2002 Booksense best non-fiction book and the 2004 Ulysses Prize for Art of Reportage. From the way she started from her local knowledge and used it as information for her novels makes us see that it is easier to gain recognition from your own people first than to gain from others who cannot relate to your background; unless you figure out a way to portray your novels such that it can be internationally known. This can be hard to do at times, so looking at authors who have done that and have been admired for it helps us as the younger generation see how we can approach the same manner.

Other notable authors who were born and raised in Zimbabwe are Catherine Buckle who has written books for children, her life stories in Zimbabwe and has outlined some of Zimbabwe’s history as well. This history is under her novel entitled Beyond Tears, Zimbabwe's tragedy. So to some up us as the younger generations look at all these authors for inspiration as they have managed to become successful not only locally but overseas as well. We hope that one day we will be able to fill their shoes but we cannot do that if we are being shot down or discouraged in any way. Even then to those who say no, we will still continue to find someone who will say yes because that’s how determined we are to get noticed. We look to adults for advice, guidance and growth because we know that with time we will do our best to become as great as or greater than they are. Please help us see how we can improve and become better writers because without that knowledge from people who have already experienced what we want to experience, then we won’t know how to get there despite the fact that we already know how to start.