Looking for Experience

[Hannah23998]

Hi, my name is Hannah and I'm 13. Although I'm quite young, my goal is a future in journalism. I've been told now would be a good time to try and gain experience. I've been writing both fiction and nonfiction pieces for as long as I can remember for numerous Public Speaking and Writing competitions.

I'd be extremely grateful if anyone has any information on how I could build up knowledge and experience.

Or, if anyone knows of any online magazines or organisations I could submit work to, that would also be a great help.
Thank You!

[guthers19]

Hi Hannah,

My name is Robert and I'm 14 from Scotland. Journalism is my career goal and I got started by (by chance) meeting a local reporter at my school's career fair. Got started with them, and had many things published by them now. Fantastic. So, my first tip is to contact any kind of local publication you know of. Ask to write for them. For free. Stress that you will write for free. That's always good.

Secondly, there are a few (very few) youth journalism sites out there. One that I'm a member of who always look for recruits are Youth Journalism International. You can enroll now here http://youthjournalism.org/?page_id=302 and click around to find out more. Jackie and Steve, the editors are fantastic. Really, check them out.

Those are my top tips really. Just get so much experience. Take every opportunity and you'll soon be working your way up the ladder like I have been now for two years. After you've had experience and have good ground knowledge and produce good work, I'd recommend starting up a portfolio site to show to future employers. It serves also as a good record. And always keep anything you get published. Don't tear it out. Keep the whole thing.

I hope you're good to go! Any questions, email me at RobertGuthrie@hotmail.co.uk and check my website http://robertguthrie.weebly.com

Thanks!

Robert.