Thirteen-year-old Shaun Ng, who is an avid writer himself, started a website during the pandemic last year to feature stories written by himself and other young people.
Known simply as “Minizine”, the website features “short stories by young people for young people”.
“I wanted to show people that everything is possible and that children can write good articles and stories too, ” he says.
There are a selection of stories, from fiction and non fiction, to knowledge and research pieces, as well as dramas, book reviews, places and food. Most of the contributors love to write fiction which teach useful lessons in life though, he says.
Shaun, who also builds websites to earn an income – including a church website and several blogsites – has built five websites early this year.
“I wanted to earn some money to buy my own laptop instead of just depending on my parents, so I started doing this, ” says the enterprising young man who attends a homeschool learning centre in Petaling Jaya.
“I learnt how to do this when I saw an advert in YouTube about building websites, while watching a video. I clicked on the link and it looked interesting, so I decided to try, ” says Shaun.
His father, Stephen Ng, 57, a cancer survivor, says that he’s glad that Shaun has taken the initiative to do this.
“As a parent, it’s a relief when your children show this entrepreneurial spirit and learn independence from young because life can be so uncertain. I’m a cancer survivor and I’m not sure if I would still be around when it’s time for him to go to university later, ” says Ng.
“I believe it’s also good to teach children the value of money from young, ” he adds.
Shaun, who loves to write adventure fiction and fantasy stories with a strong underlying theme behind them, first started writing at the age of six.
“I started a food blog and wrote about food that we tried at restaurants when I went out with my parents, ” he shares.
The practical young man who gets much of his inspiration from movies and the things around him, says that he wants to “become a writer or anything that he’s good at when he grows up”.
Siddhanth Ramesswarran, 8, who attends a private school in Klang, also contributes stories to Minizine.
“I started writing when I was six years old and I like to write about what I see, what I think, and also shows that I watch, my favourite show being teen sitcom Richie Rich, ” he says articulately.
Siddhanth has even had one of his stories featured in Kuntum, a local children’s magazine published by Star Media Group.
“I hope to be a writer when I grow up, ” he says, adding that he wants to write novels.
Loo Jia Huey, 11, who attends a Chinese school in Petaling Jaya, started writing when she was five.
“I was reading the children’s fable The Three Little Pigs and I used the characters from the story, and wrote a different story with them. Of course, it wasn’t published!” she laughs.
But Jia Huey’s interest in writing grew from there, and she has written more stories and original ones, since then.
One of her stories has also been published in a local English daily.
“I wrote about Jocelyn Yow, a Malaysian Vietnamese Chinese American who was elected as the mayor of Eastvale, California, in the United States of America, and how as Malaysians, we can learn from her example, ” she says.
“I like writing stories because I get to express my feelings and thoughts, and it’s a good way to use my imagination, ” says Jia Huey.
She loves to read, and says she is still exploring what she wants to be when she grows up.
Check out Minizine to read the children’s stories.
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