So here’s the thing.

I’m going to write about two totally different and unrelated things because they’re both things I want to share with you and they happened around the same time. The first one is cool cause it involves my thoughts on writing (again) and the second one is just plain awesome!

So first: Role-play.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, my friends and I love to role-play (RP) together, which is where we send messages to each other pretending to be different people. I do this a lot with them through Facebook messenger (for group RP’s) or other apps for just two of us.

An example:

ME: *walks up to the door and knocks loudly* Hey! Open up!

FRIEND: We know you’re in there! *positions herself to kick down the door*

This is a simplified version of RP, and recently I met someone online (My first internet friend!!) and we do more detailed posts, like paragraph sized messages detailed.

So my point of mentioning this is because while rping with my new friend, I realized how nice it is to pretend to be a character you created and get into their head. The RP I’m doing now involves a character I created specifically for this RP and I wasn’t sure what kind of personality she would have. I had a basic understanding of what I wanted, but I didn’t know how she would react appropriately to different situations. As I role-played as her, I would send messages that I would randomly write because it fit her SO well, and it helped her solidify as a true character for me.

So basically my point is, in you ever want to try out role-playing like this and you’re a writer, it makes figuring out your characters so much fun! By pretending to be that character you are getting into their head, seeing what they see, feeling what they feel. Plus, it’s really easy!

When another friend of mine introduced me to role-playing, I was skeptical at first. It sounded confusing and I wasn’t sure what the heck I was supposed to do, but she convinced me to do it, and I’ve been addicted ever since. It’s just so much fun for me and it pushes my writing skills because I have to remember that I’m not able to describe my character the way I do in a book. I have to go with speech and basic action descriptions most of the time to show what my character is like.

OK, now that I’ve had that particular rant, it’s time to move on to another one! Yay!

So I don’t know if any of you readers have heard of that girl who faked her pregnancy for a school project, and if you haven’t, here’s the jist:

A girl is raised in a home by a teen mom and all of her older siblings who also became teen parents. Her mom didn’t want her to end up like she did, so she urged her daughter to make a better life for herself. So the girl went to school and worked hard. She was a straight A student, she was on the honor role, whole nine yards. Well, as she grew up it was sort of expected of her to become a teen mom as well, like some sort of family tradition. For her senior high school project she wanted to see what people would say/ how they would react to her being pregnant as a sort of social experiment about stereotypes.

I heard of the story through Tumblr, and someone mentioned how she had a book out talking about this experience called “The Pregnancy Project: A Memoir“. Well, me being the psychology buff/fan that I am, I was more than wanting to read a more detailed description of this. So, I went onto Amazon and bought the kindle version of the book, and I didn’t read it until today. I finished it in one day. I just couldn’t put the book down! I know people say that a lot, but if I had to leave for work or something, I would be really sad and I couldn’t stop thinking about where I left off.

I absolutely love this book and I highly recommend it to everyone! Seriously, go read it now. Stop reading this rambling fangirl’s ramblings and read this book!!!

No but seriously, the things she talks about this, how her family treated her, her teachers, and her peers was incredible. Only the principal, her boyfriend (who her siblings didn’t like in the first place), her mom and her best friend were the only ones who knew the truth. She talks about how she did all this reasearch, she talked to profesionals about the symptoms, her mom helped her create a fake belly, everything! And she did it because she wanted people to know what it was like to be a pregnant teen and being told how you’re life is now ruined. Her boyfriend had already graduated so he wasn’t as school, but his friends and his own parents told him how he screwed up and he was now trapped and was no longer able to have fun. Then she talked about the after affects of this project, how her life had completely changed.

Holy cow, I can hardly contain myself while writing this!! You have no idea how much I love this girl and her courage and the message she was able to share. When it all came down to it, it takes just one person saying they believe in you and support you to help someone completely turn their life around. The words and actions we portray effect SO MANY PEOPLE! We can make a difference in someone’s life just by being kind and supportive, no matter what, just like that comic I told you about a while ago.

OK, I need to stop typing before my fingers fall off. My keyboard is startiing to protest and if I keep going I’ll probably start rewriting the book any moment. Holy cow, seriously, go read that book! Again, the title is The Pregnancy Project: A Memoir. It is so worth the money and it is something I will keep for EVER!!

Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go sit in a corner and cry about this obsession I’m developing…