We live in an era of digital influencers, who are creating and sharing stories massively. We’re surfing on a huge wave of information, listening to and watching trends coming from anywhere in the world. Consequently, our voices now reach places that our feet are far from, and this says a lot about the impact of thinking and writing our stories for a global audience.

Writing has been an escape for me since childhood. It was in my diaries that I first put thoughts and emotions on paper. I used to report what I experienced throughout the day, exposing all my drama in them. This daily practice helped me process my feelings and understand myself better.

When I was studying Psychology, I learned about Therapeutic Writing, a technique that helps individuals express their emotions freely. It does not require coherence, good grammar, or familiarity with words. Instead, it’s a way to understand paper as an extension of your emotional self, allowing you to manifest what’s deeper inside. This concept resonated deeply with me and reinforced my belief in the power of writing.

Our experiences, I believe, are bridges that connect us and are powerful in contributing to humanity’s acceptance of its own barriers and vulnerabilities. Writing and sharing transform both those who create and those who consume; it is a most concrete form of influence for me.

Over the past few years, I have read a couple of memoirs, and I identified with many of them. Through these stories, I understood and healed myself a little bit too. I learned how people deal with their conflicts, which made me reflect on my own life stories. It was by reading others’ stories that I often found the motivation I needed to promote positive changes in my life too.

And that’s why this moment in the world continues to make sense to me. Before, books featured edited parts of narrated lives; today, we have these bits in real time on social media. Finally, I think that telling our stories to influence other people has always been a human need. It connects us, inspires us, and helps us understand our own journeys in the context of a larger human experience.