6-month mentorship with YA author Charlene Thomas

Charlene Thomas started writing when she was a little girl because she has a tendency to love telling stories just as much as she loves living them. She was sixteen when she wrote a manuscript that won the National Novel Silver Award from Scholastic Books, and went on to minor in creative writing at North Carolina State University. She writes books about the world we live in, inspired by her experiences growing up in Montgomery County, MD. She believes a lot in people and what all of us are capable of, and maybe that’s why she loves creating big characters who are steadfastly determined to change their own little parts of the world.

Charlene's debut novel, Seton Girls, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and was deemed "a timely examination of consent, power, and who owns the rights to the truth" by Kirkus. Her sophomore novel, Streetlight People, received a second star from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus called it "a reflective and time-bending look at power and young love." Her third novel, It's You Every Time, releases May 6, 2025.

When Charlene isn't writing, she's also a marketer - having worked on brands at PepsiCo, Diageo, and Danone. She earned her MBA from Emory University, a Certificate in Digital Marketing from Cornell University, and a Certificate in Teaching Creative Writing from The University of Cambridge.