It all started in New Jersey. My hometown is surrounded by a bunch of other small towns in a remote area known as The Middle of Nowhere. In elementary school, I walked down our endless dirt driveway to get to the bus stop. We lived in the mountains, and on a clear day you could see New York City. There were a lot of woods and deer and woods and horses and sprawling fields. And then there were more woods.

Which is nice when you're older and you go back to visit and appreciate nature and all. But growing up there was beyond boring. Although I was raised in the country, I've always been a city girl at heart. So I focused my creative energy on visualizing the kind of life I wanted to live when my real life started. In this video on my YouTube, I share exactly what I did to create my dream life, and I hope you might find it helpful. I also posted a short video on how to create your dream life which features the key techniques that worked for me. But my teen self didn’t get the memo that real life was already happening. Hope was like this fuel I lived on. No matter how deep and endless the pain felt, the hope that my life could be better one day—that I could make it better—gave me a reason to keep holding on. I couldn't wait to graduate and go away to college.

The cool thing about college is that you can totally reinvent yourself once you get there. College is the perfect opportunity to improve anything that’s been bothering you. Because check it. No one knows you there yet. You can be the person you've always wanted to be. You can be the best version of yourself and create a shiny new life. How sweet is that? Not that you have to wait until college to be your most excellent self. Every day is an opportunity to become your better self—someone who tries to always be a friendly neighbor and does what they can to make the world a more peaceful place.

In high school, I was the poor kid at the rich kids’ school. I was an outsider. Kids bullied me for being a nerd and doing weird things like writing Paul Simon lyrics all over my sneakers, or being the only one laughing in class when no one else thought it was funny, or actually loving science. Now I own my weirdness because everyone knows that outsiders grow up to be the most compassionate, creative, caring people. But it was lonely at the time. I don't have any brothers or sisters, so I spent tons of time alone growing up. I had my group of friends, but I didn't really feel like any of them understood me. I was trying to hide some embarrassing things about my life (like why my stomach was growling in class every day) and couldn't connect with them as much as I wanted to. Books were my true friends. I would read my favorite books so many times the pages would start to fall out. I was so thankful that the authors wrote those books, that their characters inspired me to never give up.

Giving back to the community is something I've always been passionate about. I believe in karma, that if you put positive energy out into the Universe, you are creating more positive energy in your own life. It was easy for me to identify with others who needed help in some way, and that's how my dedication to volunteer work originated. I started volunteering when I was 14 as a hospital candy striper, then became a Girl Scout leader-in-training, and I was the arts & crafts director at a sleep-away camp for kids affected by AIDS. I was a buddy and home helper at ActionAIDS in Philadelphia and a community outreach educator and curriculum developer at GMHC in New York. Currently I am a RAKtivist with the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation. Being one of the helpers Mister Rogers said to look for lights me up.

I spent a lot of time visualizing my dream life and how I could ultimately create the life I wanted to live. These dreams motivated me to work hard so I could go to an excellent university. Slaying academics really does open doors for you, even ones that you never knew existed. When I got into the University of Pennsylvania, it finally felt like my real life was starting. And living in Philadelphia was amazing because I'd wanted to live in a city for so long.

I've always been obsessed with astronomy. I even had my own telescope and liked sketching the moon and planets. My 7th grade science teacher inspired me so much that I knew I wanted to become a science teacher when I was 12 years old. After Penn, I moved to New York City and got my master's degree in Physics Education from New York University. I loved going for walks around the West Village at night, feeling how spectacular the energy was and picturing myself living right there one day. And then I did! I found a super cute (i.e. super small) apartment I could actually afford on a teacher’s salary in the West Village and lived there for nine years. The power of creative visualization is phenomenal.

When I started teaching, I lived on the Upper West Side and walked home from school every day. But then I heard about some schools in other neighborhoods that didn't have basic supplies like updated textbooks or, like, paper. I heard how too many kids didn't have good science teachers who cared about them. It made me furious that kids in wealthy neighborhoods who have more than they need get all the resources, while the kids who need those resources the most never have enough. So I turned anger into action. I packed up my stuff and switched schools. I was a high school Physics and Earth Science teacher in the South Bronx from 2000 to 2007.

I survived a lot of hard times growing up. But those painful experiences gave me insight and strength. I wanted my students to know that no matter how difficult things were, they could still create their dream life. You are the architect of your own destiny. Your past does not have to define your future. The choices you make are your power to design the life you want to live. It took me a while to realize that it's possible to have more than one career. I wrote When It Happens and Take Me There while I was a teacher. Then I made an executive decision to leave teaching so I could dedicate the next chapter of my life to writing teen novels. The purpose of my life is to help teens feel less alone and inspire them to be their most amazing selves. Not being a teacher anymore was a hard decision to make. How could someone who worked her whole life to get to this place decide to leave it? But then I thought about the way reading saved me when I was younger, and how I could reach more teens as an author than I ever could as a teacher.

When I launched my second dream career, I had no idea if my books were going to sell. I didn't know how many more books would be published, or even if writing would provide enough income for me to survive. By 2017, I'd been a full-time author for ten years. Writing eleven books would not have been possible if I had been too afraid to leave what was familiar and safe. I made a choice to break out of my comfort zone and make friends with the unknown, which is where the magic happens. You know when you get those butterflies of nervous excitement about something that makes you feel alive? That is your passion speaking to you. Fear is like a road sign pointing in the direction you need to go to make your dream reality. Every time I’ve traveled in that direction by choosing to have courage in the face of fear, my life has improved tremendously.

Refusing to let fear stand in my way made this life possible. The journey has sometimes been a steep uphill climb, treacherous at times, and has often required me to navigate uncertain terrain. But now I am welcoming change instead of being afraid the way I used to be. I am empowered by knowing my intention for doing everything I do and I am determined to never give up. When you do what you love—what you ARE—you are serving your purpose. We all have a unique gift that allows us to enhance the world in a way no one else can. You make the world a better place by being exactly who you are. When you follow your heart, you end up right where you belong. And that’s the ultimate destination.