By Stephanie Rubio

Staff Writer

  In that moment standing anxiously in front of her 3rd grade teacher’s desk, senior, Annie Phun realized that she was destined to be a writer.

  She started with a creative story assigned to her in the 3rd grade and now she is working tirelessly on her own novel. Phun, dreams of becoming an author and journalist. Taking on advanced english classes such as Honors English, Advanced Placement Language & Composition  and Journalism. She strives to develop her writing skills every day in order to reach her goal.

  Phun’s Career Technical Education Counselor, Jocelyn Machado has worked alongside her during the past three years at Gabrielino and has been a huge support for her in trying to pursue her passion in writing.

  “Genuine. She is just so genuine and hardworking,” Machado stated, “She has this maturity level where you can have such a real conversation with her,”

  This past summer, Phun partook in two programs, the California Institute of the Arts Creative Writing Program and the Princeton Summer Journalism program. Through these experiences, she has gained more confidence in her writing ability as well as in herself.

  She is also concurrently a part of the Los Angeles Times HS Insider team, a journalism program that strives to empower the voices of youth through writing. Through HS Insider, she has expanded her abilities by learning from those in the field of print journalism right now.

  Phun’s supervisor provides her with stories that need covering and she is in charge of writing an article with respect to the event.

  Annie, senior, said, “I’ve interviewed John Green, I met Lin-Manuel Miranda and I covered the Radio Disney Music Awards this past summer,”

  Due to her extensive writing background, Phun has now been named Editor in Chief of the Tongva Time at GHS and continues to pursue her passion.

  As a writer she views the world in a completely different light. Phun explains that she would describe herself as a people observer, as she loves to sit back and watch social interactions.

  “I always said that if I were to wear a warning label it would say ‘warning writer at work’. Nearby people will be forced into stories or will be written into novels,” explained Annie Phun.

Starting her novel at California Institute of Arts this past summer, Phun is currently writing about the obstacles she had to overcome in her life. Being an Asian-American minority, Phun believes that its important to give a voice to all of those in her community that don’t have one. Growing up she felt that in books there was no asian representation which made her struggle with connecting to the characters.  

  “Being a writer is lonely because you do live in your mind,” Annie explained, “Words are important to me because there is always some truth behind it,”