Advice From a Young Girl on How to Follow Your Dreams

How I learned at age 8 to follow my passion—and keep following it, day in and day out. 

As I walk around every day, I don’t waste any moments. I never even sleep through my alarm or hit the snooze button. I feel like every day is an opportunity to do something fun, exciting, great, important. And I don’t want to miss out. 

Maybe not all teenagers think this way, but I do. I believe that life needs passion and purpose. I figured out what my first passion was when I was 8 years old: writing. My best friend’s mom knew how much I liked eating cupcakes and suggested that I write a blog about them. Carrie’s Cupcake Critique was born, and I began tasting and reviewing cupcakes all over the world. Today, my Facebook page, Peace Love + Cupcakes: The Cupcake Club, has nearly 100,000 followers on Facebook—but I don’t do it for fame, I do it because I love to write. 

In second grade I had an extraordinary teacher who taught me how to write realistic fiction. She encouraged me to look at my own life and let my interests and activities inspire me. So one day I came home from school and looked through my bookshelf. I realized there was no fiction series about kids who loved cupcakes like I did. Why couldn’t I write one? I took a sheet of paper and wrote a paragraph, what I would now call a “story arc.” 

My book was about four girls who wanted to start a cupcake club. When I showed it to my mom, who’s a writer, she was impressed. I convinced her to send it to her literary agent, and five years later, my mom and I have written 10 Cupcake Club books together, started a second series called Fashion Academy, and even had off-Broadway musicals produced based on my stories. It all started by thinking: “I can do this.”

REALTED: Find Classes for Kids in Your Area

It goes to show you that no dream is too big, and no goal is too far out of reach. For 10 years, I took ballet at Ballet Academy East in the city. I worked my way up from primary level to pointe shoes, and every year, I performed in The Yorkville Nutcracker. My first role was a tiny Chinese page. Then I was a reindeer, an angel, a gingerbread, a girl in the party scene. For six years all I dreamed about was one day playing the lead, Mary, and I never lost faith that it would happen. After practicing diligently, one night, my phone buzzed with an email: “Congratulations! This year, you will be playing the role of Mary in The Yorkville Nutcracker!” I was so happy, I cried; I couldn’t believe it. It will always be one of the greatest memories in my life, dancing across the stage of The Kaye Playhouse, taking my bows beside New York City Ballet principals Abi Stafford and Jared Angle.