Senior Rylie McDaniel recently started a blog where she shares her thoughts and feelings as well as poems and stories.

She started her blog to focus on improving her writing, to get her ideas out there and to have fun with it.

“They [the blog posts] are kind of like journal entries that I type up,” McDaniel explained. “I think I’m going to start writing more stories.”  

McDaniel writes about things that have had a significant impact in her life as well as her thoughts on certain topics. She claims she writes about topics that a lot of people would be able to relate to.

McDaniel most enjoys writing creatively due to De Soto High School English teacher Philip Hamilton’s creative writing class, which she took last year.

Although there are ways to make money blogging, McDaniel doesn’t plan on making money anytime soon.

“It’s [blogging] kind of just for fun and just to work on my writing. If I could make money off of it in the future when I’m older, then I might, but for now it’s just for me,” McDaniel said.

McDaniel plans on continuing to blog past high school when she will hopefully have more time.

During her freshman year, McDaniel started to really enjoy writing. During Hamilton’s class her junior year, she wrote a creative story that Hamilton thought was really good. He suggested that she should submit it into a writing competition held by the Johnson County library for a chance to be published in the elementia teen literary magazine.

“He [Hamilton] thought it matched the theme for last year’s competition because there are certain story lines or themes that go on within the magazine,” McDaniel said.

After entering into the competition two hours before the deadline, McDaniel’s story won and was published in the magazine.

For any students wanting to start a blog, McDaniel encourages them to “just do it,” and that it doesn’t have to be super fancy.

“Just put what you want out in the world,” McDaniel said. “Someone will read it.”