Coming Into Your Own

When I was a senior in high school, I was not the most popular girl in the world. On the outside, I was kind of a goody two-shoes. A girl who did everything right - joined all of the clubs, got straight A's, etc. etc. But on the inside, I was an awkward mess. I had no idea how to put together cute outfits the way some girls seemed to do effortlessly on a daily basis. My face was constantly broken out. I felt awkward in my own body, never knowing how to act in a crowd or get into the parties.

I found out later that a lot of the people in my school thought I was stuck up, but that wasn't the truth at all. In truth, I was painfully self-conscious. What other people saw as confidence, I felt as never-good-enough.

That's when my mother showed me an audition announcement in the paper. The Macon Little Theater was putting on Fiddler on The Roof, one of my absolute favorite musicals. I'd grown up watching the movie version of the musical and singing along, especially with the character of Hodel, the beautiful second oldest daughter who falls in love with the revolutionary and follows him to prison in Siberia. The moment I read about the audition, I knew I wanted that part. I didn't care that the theater was almost an hour away.

When I got to that audition and saw how many other girls my age had shown up, my self-doubt rose to the surface. But the second I got on the stage to sing, I was a new person. I was Hodel. I felt instantly transformed. I won the part and loved every minute of my time working on the musical. I met new friends that saw me as a true part of their group. I found new confidence each time I stepped onto the stage. I found a beauty within myself I hadn't realized was there. For the first time in my life, I had come into my own.

And isn't that something we all love about Young Adult fiction? Isn't that something we can all relate to? We've all felt awkward at some point in our lives, haven't we? One thing I love about reading YA is that we recognize ourselves in these young heroines. We know her pain. That gawky girl resonates with us. The heroine who doesn't yet understand who she is or what her true destiny is? She's just like us.

There's magic in that moment of coming into your own. Of suddenly finding that one thing that you were always meant to do. The one place where you suddenly shine. For Harper, the main character in my Peachville High Demons series, it's not until Book 5 that she truly comes into her own and realizes who she is and where her power comes from. It's a powerful moment, just like it was for me playing Hodel in that community theater production. I found a confidence that year that led me to take other risks. Risks like self-publishing and quitting my job to become a full time writer.

Do you have a favorite YA heroine that we get to see come into her own? What was one moment in your life where something suddenly clicked and you knew you had found something magical for yourself?

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Sarra Cannon always secretly wanted to be a cheerleader. And a witch. Now, she writes about both.  She is the author of the Peachville High Demons series, available now in ebook format. Sarra lives in North Carolina with her amazing husband and her teeny tiny pomeranian, Snickerdoodle.

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