{"id":107960,"date":"2018-04-02T12:00:13","date_gmt":"2018-04-02T11:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=107960"},"modified":"2018-03-25T16:50:48","modified_gmt":"2018-03-25T15:50:48","slug":"meet-the-teenage-feminist-who-has-just-published-her-first-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/04\/meet-the-teenage-feminist-who-has-just-published-her-first-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Teenage Feminist Who Has Just Published Her First Book"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ripfumelo Nkomo – Image: SUPPLIED<\/p><\/div>\n

20 Mar 2018 –<\/em> Tired of reading about damsels in distress who are saved by knights in shining armour\u201a Ripfumelo Nkomo says she started writing her own books shortly after learning to write.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was around eight years old when I wrote my first manuscript\u201a\u201d said the 15-year-old.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother loved buying me princess books but I always felt I could not relate. I felt they limited me to a particular belief\u201a topic or normality\u201a that girls are meant to act in a certain way. I felt different and I wanted to challenge that. I\u2019ve always been one to question power.\u201d The titles of some of her manuscripts are proof of her independent thinking: \u2018Queens who Don\u2019t Need Kings\u201a\u2019 \u2018Single Mothers who are Supermoms\u2019 and \u2018Everyone is Crazy.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Queens who Don\u2019t Need Kings\u2019 is basically about women being strong and not needing a man to do or achieve anything\u201a not needing validation and knowing they can do anything at all\u201a\u201d Nkomo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second manuscript \u2013 while my parents are married\u201a I have friends that grew up with single parents and these women have always paid the bills\u201a empowered their daughters and taught them that they can be anything they want.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Everyone is Crazy\u2019 was written when Nkomo was eight or nine to raise awareness about mental illness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe black community doesn\u2019t always understand that this is an imbalance of the mind\u201a\u201d the teenager said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat one was actually based on different characters that I saw in my class.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nkomo \u2013 now a Grade 10 pupil from Boksburg\u201a east of Johannesburg\u201a has just self-published her very first book\u201a which she hopes to see on bookshelves around the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s called Indulge in the Profound\u201a\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The 91-page book was all about exploring everything she saw in the world around her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started writing it when I was 14 on pieces of paper. It speaks about societal issues\u201a politics\u201a spirituality\u201a inner beauty and the impact of the media\u201a\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While other teens may battle with the struggles of high school\u201a friendships and relationships and even self-discovery\u201a Nkomo said she was enjoying this part of her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m different because I choose to be. I try to not let the norm and society and things happening around me influence who I become. I understand that I am in transit. I know I am moving forward and each day is a step towards the future and it\u2019s all about God\u201a\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Nkomo hopes to study screenwriting after matric and wants to produce stories of women and girls around Africa.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 sowetanlive.co.za<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

20 Mar 2018 – Tired of reading about damsels in distress who are saved by knights in shining armour\u201a Ripfumelo Nkomo says she started writing her own books shortly after learning to write. The titles of some of her manuscripts are proof of her independent thinking: \u2018Queens who Don\u2019t Need Kings\u201a\u2019 \u2018Single Mothers who are Supermoms\u2019 and \u2018Everyone is Crazy.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":107963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[208],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-literature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}