My name’s Kayleigh, I’m 17 and I started writing when I was 13 and a half. (See my post about how I started writing for more on that.) I’m currently in high school, which I call “lycee” because I’m half-French and I live in France. How come I write in English, you ask?
Well my mom is South African/Dutch and only speaks English. At the age of 8, I taught myself to read English. (I’ll always remember the day my Mom found out. I was reading her newspaper over her shoulder, which she hates, and asked me if I was reading it. I said yes. She was surprised and I felt proud of myself.) Somehow, at some point, I knew how to write in English.
As for the rest of my family, my dad is just French (okay, he’s one-fourth or one-eighth hungarian), but if you heard him speak any of the other languages he speaks (8 in total), you wouldn’t believe him. Seriously. This one time he actually had to convince a group of Germans that he wasn’t German.
I also have a younger 11-year-old brother (and yes, he’s the stereotypical annoying little brother, but he’s not like that ALL the time) and a younger 14-year-old sister (who is not only the same height as me, but is also stronger than me) who might as well be my twin. (We sometimes joke that we’re the same person and that we can read each other’s minds.)
My goals after high school are:
- studying anthropology in The Netherlands (which I miss so much that I dream in Dutch one in a while) while, hopefully, living with one of my best friends
- learning to speak fluent Dutch again
- learning to speak fluent Spanish and Italian
- working in the publishing industry until I can make a living as a full-time writer (might as well have a day job I love!)
