Steph Bowe

Author

Steph Bowe is an eighteen-year-old YA author and blogger. Her debut novel, Girl Saves Boy was published in 2010 when she was just sixteen and in 2013 she will release her second novel All This Could End. She lives on the Gold Coast with her family and writes a blog called Hey! Teenager of the Year.

What themes are present in your work?

I think the themes that are at the foreground in my work are issues like loneliness and the struggle to both fit in and to become your own person, figure out who you are when there’s this immense pressure to be like everybody else going on. Both of these things affect everyone, but are especially intense during your teenage years. I want to write novels that everyone can relate to, and that a teenager can pick up and read, and hopefully get the sense that they’re not alone in what they’re going through.

Given your age, it feels sneaky to ask, but what have been the highlights of your career?

I haven’t had much of a career yet – hopefully there are many more years of writing to come! Having said that, so far I’ve had many wonderful experiences. Meeting literary idols (like Melina Marchetta), and being able to speak in front of audiences who are interested in what I have to say, and experiencing the absolute joy that comes from being told how much your work has affected someone, how much they loved your novel!

What are you passionate about?

I’m passionate about YA literature and the ability of young people to do great things! I think too often young people are dismissed as being lazy, or irresponsible, or unmotivated, but I think this is absolutely untrue. I think all teenagers need to find their passion, and need to people to have faith in them, and they can achieve amazing things. And YA literature is also dismissed as being less meaningful than adult literature, which is untrue again! I want to share the great YA literature out there with everyone, irrespective of age, and I want to write some of it myself! Books can be amazingly influential, especially when you’re young.