Junior Skyy Howard had no idea that a story she wrote would go big.

She was lying in her bed, snuggled up in her blankets. With blinds closed, “Birds of a Feather” by Billie Eilish played in the background. She opened her phone and began to write. Howard was 14 at the time.

“Basically, I thought that Billie Eilish would be a good mom,” Howard said. “So, I thought ‘what if she adopted a kid?’ And the kid would experience life having a celebrity as a parent, and that’s what the story is about.”

“Adopted” was published on Wattpad in 2021, a site that is very popular among aspiring writers and allows them to write and post their written work without any prior credentials. At the time it came out, the book originally amassed a readership of two thousand readers. Today, the current readership is 106,000 readers.

“Usually, whenever I get an idea, I’d write them down in my Notes app, and then I’ll just make a basic chapter– which is just a rough draft– and then I’ll make it into an actual chapter,” Howard said. “The editing can take an hour or two, and the writing also takes an hour or two. There’s probably about 11,000 words in each chapter.”

Howard has a total of 17 books published on the site, all written in 2021. Her other books also center themselves around Billie Eilish, and have each received over 19,000 reads. She recalls writer’s block being one of her biggest challenges, especially with the constant wave of comments from her readers demanding more. However, her older sister, Raquel Davis, never failed to help.

“She’s always been really involved in my writing,” Howard said. “Whenever I would be like ‘dude, this book sucks, I should just stop writing,’ she would always be like, ‘no, you really love writing, you should keep going!’ She would also look over it and read it with me and help me edit it. She’s really been my number one supporter through these writing processes, she’s my inspiration.”

Writing has always served as both a comfort place and a stress reliever to Howard. In elementary school, she remembers staying at her desk with a notebook during freetime. Instead of hanging out with her friends, Howard would write short stories, song lyrics, anything she felt like.

“I think it was a couple years ago, when she finally told me she was writing a stories on an app,” Davis said. “She was afraid to share her stories as she thought we wouldn’t like it or be proud of her. The moment that I realized her love for writing was deep was while I was reading a chapter she asked me to edit. She’s very descriptive with her words and she really knows how to create the scenery with her words.”

The following is the synopsis for “Adopted”. Howard officially wrapped up the storyline in 2024, meaning the writing of it spanned for about three years. The book concluded with a total of 99 chapters.

“Meet one year old Kaia, whose parents abandoned her at birth. That was until the one and only Billie Eilish meets Kaia and her life changes for the better.”

Despite having only first meeting each other during their sophomore years, junior Jerzi Wiley remains one of Howard’s closest friends. 

“When she first told me about her books, I didn’t believe her at first,” Wiley said. “And then she showed me, and I was really shocked. She is really smart, and she is really sweet, and she’s very funny. She’s great to be around, she just brings the energy.”

A study done by the Pew Research Center in 2008 found that an overwhelming majority of teenagers– 92 percent– have written for school related purposes. In contrast, only 31 percent write for personal enjoyment. However, it also points out that both teens and parents believe that a fundamental skill for success in life is in fact writing.

And it’s true. Write The World (a nonprofit organization aiming to encourage teenagers to write more) notes that “writing regularly can help teens improve literacy skills critical to academic and professional pursuits…sharing their writing with others can help teens build confidence in their abilities and develop a sense of pride in their work.”

Howard plans on attending Northwestern Missouri State University after high school to get her bachelor’s in English. She hopes to become a full fledged author from there with the goal of eventually landing herself the title of the New York Times’s number one bestselling author. 

“I think she can do it,” Wiley said. “I feel like one day I could find a book with ‘written by Skyy Howard’ on it. I could imagine her name on one.”

Howard believes that it is important for writers to write because they want to, not only because they want to amass a large following of readers. Her work is available to read on Wattpad by searching up “bilz_zanny12380”.

“Try not to overthink [posting online], which I know is easier said than done,” Howard said. “Obviously, writing is a long process, and it’s different for everyone because everyone writes differently, but I feel like if you want to publish it, and you want to go, just do it. You only live once.”