oHw nac uoy sue royu figst ot ayp wrofadr ot rotsher?

That’s what it would feel like to be illiterate. Getting good grades would be next to impossible. You would never experience the joy of escaping into a good book. For as long as I can remember, I have been passionate about reading and writing. At age ten, I wrote and self-published a book of short stories titled There’s A Huge Pimple On My Nose that sold 1,400 copies and was reviewed by the Los Angeles Times: “If you simply want to enjoy some remarkable writing, it would be hard to find a book more satisfying than Dallas Woodburn’s.” At age eighteen, I published my second book, 3 a.m., which also received rave reviews. Says Laurie Stolarz, author of Blue is for Nightmares: “Woodburn is a very gifted writer whose work celebrates the beauty and humor of everyday life.” Most recently, I signed a contract with Foundry Literary + Media in New York to represent my first novel manuscript to publishers.

Writing is not a solitary endeavor for me. Deep down, my impulse to write stems from a yearning to connect with others. I write stories to express myself, certainly, but once a story is written I do not feel wholly satisfied until I have shared it. Shortly after my first book was published, I began speaking to schools about reading and writing, and was moved by the enthusiastic responses I received. Many kids told me they thought writing was “just for grown-ups” until they heard my story.

I founded “Write On! For Literacy” in 2000 to encourage kids to discover joy, confidence, and a means of self-expression through reading and writing. My website, www.writeonbooks.org, features writing contests, book reviews, writing prompts, and forums for young writers to share and discuss their work. Write On! also holds an annual Holiday Book Drive, and in eight years we have donated 10,140 new books (worth $80,000) to underprivileged kids. I have been told that for many, these books are the only Christmas gifts they receive. Every year, I look forward to delivering the books to the various charities we work with, including the Boys and Girls Club, Project Understanding, and Casa Pacifica. The kids swarm the boxes of books as if they were filled with candy.

In a recent assessment conducted by the National Literacy Institute of U.S., of fourth-grade students, 13% reported never reading for fun on their own; an additional 16% only read for fun once a month. In today’s world saturated with electronic media, teachers are having an increasing problem getting their students excited about reading and writing. In 2009, after writing a Business Plan and garnering feedback from professors, mentors, teachers and kids, I officially launched a publishing company, Write On! Books, that publishes anthologies of stories, poems and essays written by young writers for young audiences. A portion of the proceeds helps fund school libraries and art programs. Write On! Books is based on a simple premise: who knows what kids want to read better than kids themselves? I have taught writing workshops for kids the past three years, and I am continually astounded by their wildly creative imaginations, use of dramatic tension, and good humor. More often than not, when students share their work aloud, their peers are rapt with attention. Kids can submit their writing directly on my website: www.writeonbooks.org.

Writing has opened so many doors for me – from being awarded a full-tuition merit scholarship to the University of Southern California, to being flown to New York City to be a guest on The Early Show on CBS, to studying abroad for six months in Norwich, England with all my expenses paid. Even more than all of these amazing experiences, writing has increased my self-confidence and given me a way to express myself and connect with others.

Writing has also taught me life lessons: the importance of following your passions, believing in yourself, and striving forward with perseverance and hope. I have also learned the strategy of breaking up big dreams into smaller steps you can take today. Big dreams can seem overwhelming, but if you pick out one small step to accomplish each day, before long you’ll be amazed at how far you’ve traveled. It’s like writing a book – if you just focus on writing one page a day, at the end of the year you’ll have 365 pages!

Small steps, I’ve learned, have a way of snowballing into big leaps that you never even dreamed possible. My writing career began with There’s a Huge Pimple On My Nose, which began when I received a fifty-dollar grant from my elementary school. I proposed using profits from my book sales to pay back the grant so an extra one could be offered the following year. My first printing, done at a Kinkos copy shop, was modest: twenty-five staple-bound forty-page books. My fellow students and teachers acted as if Pimple was at the top of the New York Times Best-Seller List. The first twenty-five copies sold out in a couple of days. Can you imagine what a turbo-boost this was to a fifth-grader’s self-esteem? I was pursuing my dream, but I wasn’t pursuing it alone – my family and friends and teachers were right there with me.

So. I went back to Kinkos, ordered twenty-five more books – and soon sold all those as well. After three more trips to Kinkos, where the workers now knew me by name, I searched out a publishing business and ordered several hundred glossy-covered, glue-bound, professional-looking Pimples. My little forty-page dream evolved from a snowball into a blizzard, with reviews in the national magazines CosmoGIRL! and Girls’ Life; booksignings, radio interviews; even a “Dallas Woodburn Day” at the Santa Barbara Book Fair.

Write On! has also snowballed magically. There are now chapters across the United States – in Pennsylvania, Texas, Idaho – and even a chapter in Canada! If you are interested in starting up a chapter or holding a Holiday Book Drive in your hometown, visit my website www.writeonbooks.org or e-mail me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Like any pursuit, the writing life is full of challenges; I wrestle with “writer’s block” and rejection letters. On my writing desk I have a photograph that keeps these disappointments – indeed, any problems that arise in my life – in proper perspective.

You see, by all rights I should not be writing this essay for attribute magazine. In fact, I should not even be alive.

I was born three months prematurely, weighing just two pounds, six ounces. The photograph on my writing desk, grown a bit faded after twenty-two years, shows my two-days-old self inside a high-tech incubator. I have a breathing tube down my nose, a tangle of heart monitor wires on my chest, and an IV needle in my thigh. I can never repay the dedicated Neonatal Intensive Care Unit surgeons and nurses who cared for me. What I can do, however, is “pay forward” by helping other people in their honor.

Wayne Bryan, a teacher and mentor of mine, likes to say: “If you don’t make an effort to help those who are less fortunate than you are, then you’re just wasting your life.” My parents tell me I was born three months early because I couldn’t wait to come into this world. I refuse to waste even one day of my life.

In conclusion, I have a challenge for you. The garble I opened this essay with can be unscrambled to read: How can you use your gifts to pay forward to others?