Grace Halphen hosts a Melbourne Writers Festival session
Wesley student Grace Halphen will be hosting a Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) session on 28 August. It will be based on her book Letter to My Teenage Self, published last year. All proceeds from the book will be donated to the Reach Foundation, which aims to help young people reach their full potential.
We asked Grace about the significance of her MWF session:
"Two years ago, I never would have expected that I would have ever had a book published. That opportunity in itself is something that I’m still very grateful for. When Letter to my Teenage Selfwas published, I was lucky enough to experience the promotion of my book on TV, radio, podcasts, and on several websites. This year, a piece I wrote was also published in Letters of Love, a book by the Alannah and Madeline Foundation.
At the MWF session, I will be speaking with Shaun Tan, Australian artist, writer and film-maker, who contributed to my book, about school and bullying. This is still an area I am very passionate about, and look forward to speaking at the event.
The Reach Foundation aims to help young people reach their full potential. The start of secondary school is typically a hard time for people, and I think it’s really important to provide the necessary support and encouragement. In creating my book, I also hoped to provide comfort to those facing similar challenges to the ones I did at the start of high school. Because of the connection between my project and their goals, I decided to donate all proceeds made by my book to the Reach Foundation, and have raised over $20,000 so far."
