I’m 23 years old and I am a lot of things, a traveler, a dreamer, a mythology nerd , an aspiring author and poet. As an activist, I was awarded an MBE and a Diana award for my charity work, being named an Ambassador at One Young World and a Young Expert on Free Expression at WEXFO. I have cerebral palsy which was caused by a condition called Kernicterus which is caused by untreated jaundice and is the basis of my charity work.

I got into poetry when I was around 15 years old, even though I had studied it throughout my mainstream education, I never really understood it up until that point. I was studying for my English literature GCSE exam and I was studying a poem by Imtiaz Dharker called Living Space, which is based on the slums of Mumbai and the kind of conditions that people have to endure on a daily basis. And my English teacher at the time said something that really whacked the final nail in the coffin when it came to me wanting to start a writing career, which was “some poets write , not only to express themselves but to address social issues. “ And I was like, “ huh, I never really thought about poetry that way before. Since I now am considered an activist, maybe I should give it a try.”

So I wrote my first poem called See through the wheelchair. And people around me really liked it so I started writing more and more poems and just fell in love with it over time . The reason why I love poetry is because it allows me to explore different aspects of myself and the world beyond in a way that you can’t simply say by talking to someone about it without making yourself sound weird. Plus, what I also like to do with my poetry is incorporate different elements and aspects from media that I like and weave them into the themes that I’m exploring , such as movies, tv shows and mythology from around the world.