I remember when I was a little girl and stead of going out to buy toys, my mom used to invite a book seller to come over so she could check and select all the new books she wanted for us. Some were a little boring, including encyclopedias and poetry books -with no pictures in them ( those were a deal breaker for me, I was too young!) and some were so cool that I would flip through every single day, would read and make copies of the fun and colorful images they had. I had toys, but I'd rather read than play! Without a doubt, one of the perks of growing up for me was that I got to choose the books I wanted and I truly became a shopaholic (for books) for someone my age. I had a great childhood with my Disney and princesses tales! I lived in a perfect world with my books :)
But things started to change when I entered middle school. Books were mandatory for our Portuguese class and they had more words and less pictures, I guess that's when you realized I was growing up...besides that, the stories didn't appeal to me at all. I hated the ones assigned to us and reading became a boring part of my day and no longer a hobby. I completely lost interest in books. They used to be my friends and now I was kind of alone.
I wasn't the girl who fitted well in in school, always felt like I was one generation behind everyone else and was always comparing myself to the other girls, I wanted to talk to them but felt like I had nothing to talk about. And that did made me feel lonely but at the same time I was cool with that and I grew up to be a very independent person. But then one day I saw THE book.
At age 13 I got my first book from the "Princess Diaries" series. All the girls in school had it and were always talking about it. The passion for the books was the one thing that we all seemed to have in common... the books somehow brought us together. For them it was more about the romance (because that's what teenage girls do) and the idea of having access to a teenage diary filled with love and secrets... To me, 13 years later, what I remember of the story was the same thing that first caught my attention when I read it back then: the city. More specially New York City. The city that I had seen in movies and seemed so distant for me to go was the city where the story of Mia and her friends took place. I just enjoyed reading them. New York felt like a place I would love to live and write my own story. A place where music, TV and everything I liked was within reach. Where any girl could experience her own version of a fairy tale.
At age 13 I got my first book from the "Princess Diaries" series. All the girls in school had it and were always talking about it. The passion for the books was the one thing that we all seemed to have in common... the books somehow brought us together. For them it was more about the romance (because that's what teenage girls do) and the idea of having access to a teenage diary filled with love and secrets... To me, 13 years later, what I remember of the story was the same thing that first caught my attention when I read it back then: the city. More specially New York City. The city that I had seen in movies and seemed so distant for me to go was the city where the story of Mia and her friends took place. I just enjoyed reading them. New York felt like a place I would love to live and write my own story. A place where music, TV and everything I liked was within reach. Where any girl could experience her own version of a fairy tale.
Apart from relating my own story to the main character's story, I remember I would read the books and picture myself living here, having my own version of Lilly and her awesome brother (and Mia's love interest) as friends, hanging out on Park Avenue and hitting the most exclusive balls and events, because that's what teenage princesses do in the New York, right? Oh boy, those books were like my bible for years! I read them countless times and had in mind that one day, no matter how, I would experience that. Not the princess part (although I guess I wouldn't opose to it!), but the life in New York and being able to relate myself to Mia, an girl far from perfect who was somehow comfortable in her own skin, fighting for what she believed...and living in NY!Those books motivated me for years.
Life has a funny way of doing things. Somehow my oh-so-perfect life in Brazil turned upside down and with determination and a goal in mind I made it to NY!
I blame movies and the books for making me fall in love with this place and every now and then I go to the bookstore (here in New York) to find a new novel to read that takes place exactly here. They just inspire me so much! I confess that I remember wishing that I would live here and who knows would find myself a real Michael... and he would be as awesome as the one in the books. I'm still looking for him but somehow my life already feels like an awesome fairy tale. Awesome and in New York City. With real pictures that I get to take myself!
The next chapter I will discuss more how I ended up in NY and what other books were my inspiration to get here and pursue my career in...?
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