My Teenage Daughter Made $2900 As A Writer In July
I never thought writing online could pay so well
I refused to send my daughter to pre-school when she was a child. I tried at one point, but I realised she was regressing instead of progressing, so I took her out. Instead, I decided to teach her Maths, English & Arts through other avenues. She progressed well in Mathematics & English and did extremely well in school later, but her studying habits and attitude took a turn when she transitioned to high school.
She refused to go to high school and wanted to stay at home. I hired a private tutor who came to our home five days a week to teach her Maths, Higher Maths & Physics. Along the way she lost interest in all subjects and lost her enthusiasm for activities she once enjoyed. She did not have any visible ambition, never played games, and refused to interact with people. All she did the whole day was eat, sleep and attend her private lessons at home.
Finally, she managed to scrape through her high school exams. She refused to go to university. I asked what she had in mind and what she planned to do for the rest of her life. She said she had no plans and wanted to try blogging. I couldn’t figure how she was going to make money blogging. She told me to give her 6 months to prove herself. She wanted to make a living through writing and creating content online.
Writers Struggle To Make Money
I told her that it is very difficult to make money through writing. I used to work for a PR agency and later with some publications. I know how much money writers make. A lot of writers who publish books make a living through offering workshops and seminars. The published book serves as a part of their portfolio and helps to enhance their professional career. Writers don’t make much money from book sales.
“The chances of you earning a decent income through writing are very slim, you will just barely manage to get by in life. Besides, you don’t have any domain expertise,” I told her.
Finally, I managed to convince her to go to university. The battle then switched to choosing what she wanted to study. She didn’t have a clue what she wanted to study, but she knew she didn’t want to study subjects such as history, law, psychology, economics, and politics.
Since she likes Maths I suggested why not study something related to it. She told me she also has interest in English Literature or Journalism. I told her she could study them by reading a lot of books or news articles and persuaded her to take up Mathematics, Computer Science or Engineering instead. She decided to pursue Computer Science with a Data Science major.
Since then, one year of university passed by and we were struck by the pandemic. I lost my entire business and slowly my income dried up. I didn’t know what she was doing but she was always busy locked up in her room, so I thought she was attending her online university classes.
A New Perspective To Life
One day my wife told me that my daughter was spending a lot of money. She asked me to check where all the money was coming from. I didn’t want her to get into any trouble so I asked her to tell me honestly how much she had in her bank account and how she could afford to spend like this. She told me she made money through writing. I was both shocked and thrilled.
She said, “you told me that it’s hard and nobody makes good money through writing. You know, I learned people are becoming millionaires through writing and creating content”.
I was stunned. I am now beginning to have a new perspective of life. I imposed my insecurities, limiting beliefs and outdated views of life on her. Now I watch as my teenage daughter, who has not graduated from university, is making more money than me creating content online. I would have loved to do the same, but I did not pursue writing during the different phases of my life for fear of not being able to make ends meet.
This new perspective that dawned on me as a result of my daughter’s experiences tells me that we should all do what we love and forget what others told you to do. Frankly, there is no career path that is absolutely right or wrong.
The world is full of noise. Listen through your heart. A lifetime is far too short to spend running after money. You will miss out on living the best parts of your life.
A new era for creators has emerged. The digital economy has liberated journalism and offered thousands of people the opportunity to express themselves and earn a living. Its the creator economy, I have only just discovered the opportunity, but now I am planning to follow in the footsteps of my daughter and pursue my passion for writing and creating content.
Do you think writing pays ?
Feel free to join our newsletter and Facebook group named Write To Inspire for more updates.
