Growing Up Online

To mark Book Week Scotland we talk to internet sensation Estelle Maskame, a young Scot with very big dreams…

- Dawn Geddes

SOME people wait a lifetime for their wildest dreams to come true, but for Peterhead author EstelleMaskame, it happened at the age of just 17 when her first book was published.

Three years on, and with Book Week Scotland events taking place all over the country championing authors just like Estelle, we caught up with the successful writer to talk about overcoming adversity and her life as a published author.

Estelle Maskame’s teenage years were quite the whirlwind. She began writing her first book, a contemporary romance for young adults set in America, when she was just 13, posting her work on the writing community Wattpad.

The novel, Did I Mention I Love You (DIMILY), received over four million hits online, attracting many fans as well as the Edinburgh based publisher Black & White.

“I still think the fact that I got published at 17 is a bit crazy,” Estelle tells me. “Growing up, I always dreamt about seeing my books in print, but I never thought I’d manage to do it in my teens. I didn’t even know that teenagers could get published!”