Am I too young to be a writer?

Someone asks:
I'm in my mid teens, and I love to write in my spare time. I'm not too interested in fame or popularity, I just want to see my stories in print. But now I've got people telling me that I'm too young to go anywhere with writing. Are they true? SE Hinton was 16 when she wrote The Outsiders. And my parents say childhood is the best time to develop a hobby. I've been writing for almost eight years, and it's difficult to acknowledge that just because I'm young means I can't be any good.
Opinions, experience, advice etc. would be most welcome
My Answer:

You're never too young to be a writer. I agree with you, some people look down on young writers because we don't have enough experience (I'm 15) and our work is usually pretty bad (I've read a lot of stories by young authors...most aren't pretty). So I can understand where that opinion comes from. But you are correct: just because you are young doesn't mean your writing totally sucks. Just keep writing, and in that way you'll gain experience. But don't chicken out from querying agents and trying to get your writing out there! There's an Australian author who got signed by an agent and she was 15! (her name is Steph Bowe, you can look her up).

Good luck and don't give up!

Additional: Here is an article you might be interested in, if you want to see it from a different perspective:
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2006/04/27/10…

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1 interesting comments:

Marie Rearden says :

Never too young. Keep writing!

-Marie at http://marierearden.blogspot.com/

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