Gwen Zepeda

Says people always ask her when she became a writer and she thinks she's been a writer since she was born.

Grew up in a rough neighborhood surrounded by poverty, alcoholism; a mentor pushed her to apply to college.

Got pregnant at 19, "just like every other woman in [her] family," saw her peers realize, "aw, her too," felt like she'd let everyone down.

After having a baby, her GPA dropped; she lost her scholarship and had to drop out of the University of Texas.

Told herself she wanted to be a housewife, said she'd use that time to be creative.

Started writing on the internet, saw many of her peers getting published; gave herself a one-year deadline to get a book published.

Stresses you don't have to pick one thing and do it for the rest of your life, but you should always be doing something rather than nothing.

Says that in the time she "wasted" freaking out about her writing, she could've finished 85 books.