I am absolutely thrilled to share that I'm partnering with NCS and their 'No We Can' story competition – where you can win the opportunity to be published in an anthology!
NCS is a four-week programme that aims to empower sixteen and seventeen year olds, giving them the chance to pursue challenges, make friends, and gain new skills... and party at the end of it all. And I love their message of 'No We Can': encouraging young people to "prove the naysayers wrong" and "take the world by storm". That is very much my attitude to life.
If you want to find out more about NCS, head over to @NCS on Twitter and Instagram, and check out their website at wearencs.com - or find them right here on Wattpad, NCS_Official!
To mark NCS 2020, they're running a competition where 12 lucky young writers (aged 13-18) will get their 'No We Can' stories published in a motivational and inspirational anthology that will be shared with the attendees of the programme.
If you want to enter for a chance to be published in the anthology, here's a quick run-down of the rules...
● You must be between 13 and 18 years old to enter and living in England or Northern Ireland
● Your story can be up to 3,000 words. You can post it here on Wattpad (which I definitely encourage!) or on your blog if you have one, and send a link to wattpad@ncstrust.org.uk or, simply send it as a Word document attachment.
● Your story can be fiction or non-fiction – so long as it's about overcoming obstacles and channelling that 'take the world by storm' attitude!
Plus – did I mention I'll be on the judging panel to pick the winning entries? I can't wait to read your stories!
And now – on to my own 'No We Can' story...
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The summer I turned 16 was a huge turning point for me. I never realised it at the time – I never thought of it as bold or courageous or impactful, or anything like that. It was all just... what seemed to make sense.
Let's start with school.
That summer of 2011 meant it was time to sit my last round of GCSEs and pick my A Levels. I'd done well in all my exams and classes, and while I seemed to have a bit of a flair for languages and was encouraged to pursue that, I'd decided that I wanted to do a Physics degree at university.
"But that's a boys' subject," people would tell me, their faces scrunched up and mouths twisted. I was the only girl in my A Level class, but it never phased me. It wasn't a boys' subject. It was my subject: one I liked, one I got good grades in, one I wanted to study further.
But when putting in my choices for A Levels, the list wasn't just Maths and Physics. It was also French and Spanish – because I honestly did enjoy those classes, too.
'Those don't mix,' people would tell me, frustrated. "Why don't you pick one or the other? Why those together? What about English with languages, or Chemistry with Maths and Physics?"
Because why not? I thought. So what if learning the past participles of verbs in French wouldn't help me learn how to differentiate an equation in my Physics lessons? Again: languages were classes I liked, the ones I got good grades in, ones I wanted to study further. I never saw any reason to not do them.
People reminded me that I'd have to choose to drop one in my second year of A Levels, and only study three subjects. I told them no, I would study all four, for two years, simply because I wanted to, and I knew I was capable of it.
I was going against the grain, and people were starting to notice and point it out.
And it wasn't just at school.
Outside of school, I had thrown myself into writing. I'd always loved writing – I'd been making up stories since I learned to write, and I'd always loved books. I'd been writing entire fantasy trilogies since I was given an old laptop at age 11 to do my school homework, and that summer, amidst all the GCSE prep, there was a book I desperately wanted to read.
At the time, everything was paranormal romance – which I liked, but was a bit tired of. I wanted to read a regular high school romance and I knew exactly what kind of characters I wanted to read about. The only trouble was, I couldn't find that story... so, I wrote it myself. I ended up writing the book that would change my life: The Kissing Booth.
I posted The Kissing Booth on Wattpad while I was studying for GCSEs, when I was 15-going-on-16. I didn't tell anybody, not even my closest friends or my parents, that I wrote. It felt like some dirty little secret, a guilty pleasure... And honestly, I just thought it was weird. Until Wattpad, I'd never really had friends who liked writing. I was convinced it was a weird hobby, and I was already 'the weird one' in my friendship group.
But The Kissing Booth was growing in popularity, its reads climbing into hundreds of thousands, then towards the millions. I was even hired through Wattpad to do some writing to promote a gaming app.
And it was at that point I started to take myself a little more seriously.
And not just that: I started to own up to the things I liked.
I liked writing. I liked Physics. I liked learning languages.
I liked shows like Doctor Who and Supernatural, I was (am) obsessed with anything Harry Potter, I read swathes of fanfiction, I liked reading up about the Tudors or Greek Mythology, I classed myself as a proud Nerdfighter.
I liked things – weird things, I thought, that nobody else I really knew was into – and I was so sick of hiding that, and sick of people questioning it.
So that summer, I began to open up about the things I liked, the things I wanted to do and spend my time on, and if anybody questioned it, well, so what? I'd think. What does it matter to them?
It was also around that time that I, effectively, ditched the group of friends I'd had for the last several years – the ones amongst whom I was definitely 'the weird one'. Some of them I'd even been to primary school with. We lived near each other, but honestly, I'd never felt especially close to any of them, never would've considered any of them a 'best friend'. I would be hanging out with them and find myself sat on the end of the row or at the edge of the group and wonder if they'd even care to include me if I didn't make the effort myself.
If I was owning up to things I liked, I realised that I could admit I didn't like my friends. They didn't value me, I thought, so I would find new friends who did. Luckily, when we started sixth form, everyone was divided into two common rooms: the cool one, and the... not-so-cool one. You can guess which one I abandoned and which one I found a lot of joy in; it was the one where we would play Pokémon and UNO in our spare time.
That summer was the summer I started to really get a grip on being confident, and loving myself as I was, rather than trying to conform or fit a mould, or do what was expected. I wrote a book that would go on to be 'the most rewatched Netflix movie of 2018'; I studied things people pulled bewildered faces at, only to go on to get my degree, use my languages, and find a job I loved in IT; I began to hang out with people I liked and respected, who liked and respected me, and accepted me for who I was.
I stopped hiding.
While I was taking myself seriously and growing in confidence, I channelled a little of that towards my book. It was growing in popularity on Wattpad and publishing had always been some pipe dream I'd never thought possible. I looked into how to get published, I found a small publishing house accepting manuscripts, and sent in a submission, pitching my book.
I had high hopes. This crazy idea of becoming a published author was seeming less crazy by the day, with my inbox getting flooded with hundreds of comments on each new chapter.
The publisher responded to me with a polite, if patronising, rejection.
"Why don't you try writing for your school newspaper?" they suggested.
I looked at the email, which probably would have crushed me before that summer, and laughed. My school didn't even have a newspaper. No, what I was doing was writing YA novels, and I was damn well going to keep doing it.
And I did.
I'd like to think I showed them. 'Them' being that publishing house, the people I'd called 'friends' but probably never really were, every person who ever pulled a face at my academic choices or even just a TV show I liked.
I'd like to think I showed them, but in all honesty... none of them matter to me, and never really did. Everything I've done has been for myself – everything I've proven has been for myself. Can't find the book I want to read? Okay, I'll just write it! Physics isn't for girls? Sure it is, because I'm a girl!
I couldn't say what the trigger was, that summer. Whether it was the book, my impending A Levels, having made a few new friends through GCSEs, or something else entirely.
But that summer I turned 16, I said, 'screw it' to everyone who'd ever even implied a 'no you can't,' and I did it all and infinitely more.
My nan always used to say, "there's no such word as can't." And she was so right.
There is no such word as can't.
Because no, we can.
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Feels a bit strange to share some non-fiction and something so personal here on a platform where I've only ever posted fiction, but... I hope you all enjoyed reading! I hope my story can help inspire and empower some of you.
Don't forget – you have until 12 January 2020 to submit your entries for the 'No We Can' anthology competition! I'll be sharing some more details and advice over on my blog tomorrow, so be sure to check that out at www.authorbethreekles.com.
Find NCS on Twitter @NCS, on Instagram @NCS, on Snapchat @NCS_official, and check out their website www.wearencs.com for more info on everything.
Full T&Cs and an FAQ are available on their Wattpad profile NCS_Official if you want to check that out, too.
(And hey – remember: no, we can.)