Do you ever sit down with children and discuss who their role models are and why? As they grow, you’ll be surprised how far they go to follow in the footsteps of the people that inspire them.

Take for instance, Michelle Malaika Gwiiza, who started writing at the age of 13. And that’s when her first book was published.

The now 17-year-old is a published author, who obviously, has been inspired by a number of authors.  

One of those writers is Sean Covey, author of bestsellers such as, "The 7 habits of Happy Kids” and "The 7 habits of Highly Effective Teens”, among others. "Teens that love reading should be knowing these books,” Gwiiza says.  

Some of Gwiiza’s books. The author’s first book was published when she was 13. 

American educator, keynote speaker and author of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” Stephen Covey, has also been a source of inspiration to Gwiiza, getting her out of her shell to jot something down. 

And, activating her creative side, is renowned British author, Joanne Rowling, better known as JK Rowling, of the much-loved series of Harry Potter novels. 

Writing, however, isn’t something that’s been easy for her. She wanted to write books for teens, to educate and entertain young people, and show them the beauty of Rwanda.

Pushing past her fears and facing the inevitable obstacles, Gwiiza now has four published books that are all written in Kinyarwanda— "Utunyange”, "Amashyuza”, "Nasuye Pariki y’Akagera” and "Twige Kwizigamira”. 

"My love for books started when I was young. I treasured reading and found myself writing summaries of the books I read. With my love for little children and help from my mother, I wrote and published my first Kinyarwanda book "Utunyange”, a children’s book. After that, I got more comfortable with my writing and published three more books,” she says.

With school involved, Gwiiza says that writing hasn’t been easy because there is a lot to study and not enough time to create content, or write for that matter. 

However, through the "Gira Igitabo” competition, she presented her books that Ubuntu Publishers picked, and her writing journey continued.

She is into teen life and fiction stories. When asked why all her books are in Kinyarwanda, the author says that this is so because she is making effort to master her mother tongue. 

She believes that there are too many English books, especially by international authors, which is why she wants to stick to Kinyarwanda so that young readers can find the local language fun to read.

However, the senior six finalist who dreams of becoming a doctor one day, had one of her books on travel translated to English to be able to gain a wider audience. She is currently working on a novel for teens.

She looks forward to pursuing a course in paediatrics, and continue with writing, no matter what. 

Some of the challenges are failure to express herself, like putting a message across and how it is interpreted by a reader. At times, she has so much to do that she lacks enough time to write. She also worries that her content may not be of interest to readers sometimes.

Gwiiza doesn’t limit herself either, she enjoys singing. She recently released her first song, dubbed, "Ibyaremwe bimushime” which loosely means, "Let’s thank Him.” It is a song that she wrote to give thanks to God for being with her through her school journey.

"I am a Christian, so I always give thanks to God, this journey wasn’t easy and that’s why I sang this song. When I was young, I loved listening to music and I started singing when I was eight years old in Sunday School. With the help of my mother and some YouTube videos, I got better,” she says.

Gwiiza says she always yearned to do something related to music, for instance, playing instruments like the guitar and piano, for leisure purposes, but God, she says, had other plans for her.

You can find Gwiiza’s books at Arise Bookshop in Kimironko.