Blackstone Audio Inc. - Positive: surviving my bullies, finding hope, and changing the world

When you open a book about someones life, written by that person, you dont expect the first words to be written by someone else. So you may be wondering, Whats this guy doing here?

Well, it might help to think of this less as a book and more as a powerful conversation youre about to have with someone. Maybe youve heard a little about that person, and youre drawn to know more. If you saw that person walking down a sidewalk or at a party, the most comfortable way to start that conversation is to be introduced.

Reader, I would love you to meet Paige Rawl. When you two have finished talking, I think youre going to walk away a new person.

At the end of the book are a few pages filled with information about important issuesbullying, HIV/AIDS, and suicide. (Their statistics may surprise you, which highlights our need to make sure people know more about them.) There are also resources and ways you can help people dealing with these issues. Or maybe help yourself. Knowing more about these topics can, at the very least, make life better for a lot of people. At most, it can save a life.

But in between this introduction and those pages, youll meet Paige. She will tell you, in vivid, captivating detail, her storyand its a roller-coaster ride of emotion. It moves from heartbreaking to heartwarming, and will move you from feeling infuriated to uplifted and inspired.

Thirteen Reasons Why , my novel about a teenage girl who commits suicide, but only after making a set of audio recordings to describe her reasons why, was prompted by a personal experience. My character is fictional, but my understanding of that deep despair came from conversations with a relative who attempted suicide as a teen.

I believe life always leaves opportunities for hope, but through those conversations I understood how someone could give up looking for ithow even hoping for hope could be painful.

Over the years, countless people have explained to me the different ways my book has affected them. It reminded them of the ways, good and bad, big and small, that we each affect one another every day. It showed them that we never fully know what someone else is struggling with. And it encouraged people to fight for the help and respect they deserve.

Storytelling does that. It lets us see the world from someone elses perspective. It lets us explore issues from a safe distance because theyre not happening to usnot in that precise way. We can judge a characters emotions and decisions, weighing them against our own. We can decide not to become like one character, or try to be more like another.

But when the story is true, as it is in Positive , that safe distance can waverperhaps feeling uncomfortably close. (Ive never behaved like that person, have I?) It can lead us to ponder questions that are important yet difficult to ask on our own. And when a story does that, it changes the way we see everything, including ourselves.

Sometimes in life we get introduced to a person who helps us ask those questions. That person may be knocked down and held down for so long that she breaks. She shatters. But given a second chance, she chooses to rise higher than she ever thought possible. And she chooses to use her lifes experiences to bring the people she meets up with her.

And when, lets say, she writes a book about those experiences, were all invited to rise with her.

That is why it is my great honor to introduce you to Paige Rawl, who I first met within the very words now placed in your hands. Once she tells you her storyonce you read her truthI know you will become fast friends and feel thoroughly inspired, just as I have.