Tilly completed the First Story Young Writers Programme at Landau Forte College Derby. They took part in the virtual Young Writers Residential in 2020. In 2023/24 they were awarded a Folio Academy Mentorship and were mentored by Peter Hobbs. They represented First Story at the Fair Education Alliance’s 2024 Youth Summit.
I was probably twelve when I joined First Story, so I wasn’t very old. I’d come to school with nobody, I didn’t know anyone, and I was struggling a bit. So, when we did a poetry competition in school and I won, my English teacher said, “You should do First Story.”
That was probably the best decision I’ve ever made. I’d found somewhere where I could be unapologetically me, and that’s something I’d always struggled with, and I really craved. I went into First Story wanting a friend, but as time went on my goals became more writing based. I found a home in writing and then I wanted to find out where else that could take me.
I’d always wanted to do something science-y; when I was little, I wanted to be a marine biologist or a mad scientist. Doing First Story massively changed that. I moved from being this academic weapon who burnt out at the end of every year to someone who accepted that maybe creativity is the way forward for me. I realised that I have everything I need for a life right here – I’ve got my writing.
Now I do psychology, English and Biology at A Level, and I want to do Psychology at university, but I also want to do a Master’s in Creative Writing and work as a mental health practitioner who uses writing to help other people.
There’s so much I can do with my writing. Writing got me through COVID, that’s how I survived, I wrote. That was another time in my life where I got really isolated, and then I developed an eating disorder. Writing got me through. Now I’m able to advocate for that; I use my writing and I talk about my experiences on First Steps’ blog, an organisation that provides care and support to people affected by eating disorders and difficulties. Writing allows me to be queer, and I’ve just got my autism diagnosis. I would have never looked at the autism side of things if I hadn’t gone to a neurodivergent poetry night by accident and gone, “Oh my gosh, they’re talking about me.” It’s all of these things – I’ve been able to find them through writing.
When I’d finished my GCSEs and started my A Levels, I’d gone back to the person I was in Year Seven and writing had taken the back foot. It was horrible; I felt like I couldn’t express my emotions. It didn’t feel like I had time to write, so I applied for a Folio Academy Mentorship because I just wanted time to do that.
I was apprehensive at first. I didn’t know if I was going be able to make time for it because I was so stressed about A Levels. But once I started, I realised, this is really good for me. I came out of every session with Pete happier than I’d been all week. Having that one-to-one time to do my writing and to talk to someone who actually knew what was going on in the writing world was incredible. I just loved it, and I’d do it wherever I was.
I cannot explain how much talking to Pete did for my writing, even in that first session. I learnt how to be a writer in not just a private sense but in a public sense, how to use my writing to communicate with people. I’m Young Producer for Derby Poetry Festival this year, and that’s talking about my writing in a professional sense. Having spoken to Pete about being paid to be a writer and being paid for skills, I now know how to have those discussions. If I can do that when I’m under eighteen, then what can I do once I’m older? That’s a really exciting thought. It’s exciting to know that there are places I can go, and that’s all a result of First Story.
Doing writing, talking about my experiences and sharing things with other people, has given me confidence – there are things I can do now that I never would have done before. Everything in my life is impacted by the fact that I started writing when I was little, and I carried it on. Writing has made me the person I am today, and I don’t know who I would be without it, I would be really different. And I’m so happy that First Story found me.