Thread by @thesundaytimes

Exclusive: JK Rowling (@jk_rowling) never thought of writing children’s books. After all, her own childhood wasn’t very happy

Here she explains why she changed her mind, and why she'd have gone looking online for a sense of self if she were a teen today
thetimes.co.uk/article/jk-row…

"I began writing aged six. Maybe, if I’d grown up now, I’d have joined an online writing group and posted my fiction there, although I was always quite secretive about the work I produced out of the classroom."

"As it is, only my bin and I know exactly what was in the short stories I churned out as a child and a teen, not to mention the novels that shrivelled up and died after a couple of chapters."

"One thing I’m sure about: my teenage self would definitely have gone looking online for the sense of self that eluded me until I was past 30."

"The idea of writing for children had never occurred to me before, not because I thought it was in any way lesser than writing for adults — I read voraciously as a child and still count certain children’s books among my favourites — but because my childhood wasn’t very happy."

"I’m not one of those who craves a return to a delightfully carefree youth.

"For me childhood was a time of anxiety and insecurity."

"It has occurred to me since that much of what young people found in the Potter books are the very same things they seek online: escape, excitement and agency."

"The Potter books also describe a community that sees and embraces what others might see as oddities. Who doesn’t want that? How much more “seen” can a person feel, than to be told “you’re a wizard”? "

Read the full story: thetimes.co.uk/article/jk-row…