By Beth Dotson

Every teen has embarrassing moments. But instead of trying to keep quiet about them, 20-year-old Ned Vizzini writes about them! Ned is the author of the hit US book Teen Angst? Naaah…, a collection of essays about stupid things that have happened to him.

How did Ned start writing? It was at high school. One day he dropped his backpack down some stairs. It hit a girl on the back of her legs. She turned around, looked at Ned, and kicked the backpack the rest of the way down. When he got home, Ned wrote about the backpack and the girl. He felt better. So he kept writing. Then he sent his essays to a New York publisher who liked them and published them. Teen People, one of the top teen magazines in the US, even featured it in their book club.

"I wrote about boring, scary, embarrassing high school experiences," Ned told Spot on. One day, for example, he went to a writing-awards ceremony in a T-shirt and shorts. Everyone else was wearing fine clothes. Ned stood out even more after he spilled red punch on his white shirt.

Then there was the time he ran a marathon to impress a girl. Through rain and pain he finished the race, wearing sandals and socks. At the finish line, the girl he wanted to impress was not waiting for him. Her boyfriend had already finished and she had left.

Ned writes about all kinds of things; about trying to sell a movie he made, about meeting his first girlfriend at a party, about getting a ticket from the police for not paying on the subway, and about working as a street musician.

What are Ned’s plans? He wants to keep writing and he’s now studying writing at Hunter College in New York. "I would like to learn how to write fiction, not just about myself." But he doesn’t want to be a star. "It’s great being a writer because you can be successful without being famous," he says. So look for more books by Ned—but not about Ned—in the future!

AT THE TOP OF THE ARTICLE, IT SAID THIS ABOUT ME:

Mache Erlebnisse sind so peinlich, dass man sie am liebsten wergessen möchte. Ned Vizzini aus Broklyn macht es anders—er veröffentlicht sie!

WHICH MEANS:

"Make experiences are so embarrassing that one would like to tow-eat it dearest. Ned Vizzini from Broklyn makes it more anders.er publishes it!"