Meet a young writer – Jadyn

Meet one of our young writers and hear how the Ministry of Stories has changed her writing, school work and imagination.

Jadyn is 10 and loves to write. At the moment her favourite thing to write about is Horror Comedy, that’s horror and comedy mixed together, a bit like Shaun of the Dead.

Jadyn was finding school a little difficult before she joined our writing club. She struggled with confidence and didn’t always feel comfortable expressing her ideas or thoughts.

Since joining the Ministry of Stories she has enjoyed the freedom the writing centre offers. She likes the staff and finds the writing mentors really helpful, especially with helping her to understand things such as phrasing.

Jadyn says: “I write three times a week now, both at the club and at home. Before coming to the Ministry I only wrote at school. It’s really helped me to improve my grammar and spelling but I also write different things. Before my stories were always based on fairy tales but now they’re a wide range of different genres.”

The favourite story she has written at the Ministry was about a can of soup named Tim – also a favourite of our volunteer Deni – which was professionally illustrated before being published and stocked in Shoreditch Library as part of the 2015 picture book project.

Things for Jadyn are now improving in school. She reads her stories out loud and finds writing in class much easier.

Jadyn adds: “Ministry of Stories has helped me to talk more and I’m going to more clubs, it’s helped me to do more things. They should have a Ministry of Stories in every city, in every country, even Antarctica… especially Antarctica.”

Jadyn’s mother, Charlene, always knew there was a writer inside her daughter, but Jaydn didn’t feel confident enough to acknowledge it. Since coming to the Ministry, she has seen her daughter be encouraged and grow in her writing.

Charlene adds: “The Ministry gives children a chance to discover an interest in writing that might not be nurtured in a school setting. Imagination isn’t nurtured enough in our children. Sometimes the things she was writing were really surprising and silly, but that’s what it’s about. Being allowed to be silly and see where it takes her.”

Discover more about out of school clubs on the programme page.