Who R We?

Teens Who Blog

We are teens who love Wake County Libraries. We want our voices to be heard, too.

Emily is a young adult blogger for Teens aWake and loves all things written. She’s a horse-riding, flute-playing bookworm that hopes to someday publish a book of her own. But for now, she’s just going to enjoy life and all its treasures. Emily is homeschooled (so she can read–er, study more.). She is and will forever be a fan of fantasy books. Oh, and she absolutely adores smileys.She is an actress and was recently in a play called Dragonsong (based on a book by Anne McCaffrey) produced by Cary Youth Theatre. She also writes at her own blog called AyeCaptain, which you can find here.

Vanessa is an avid reader and writer of poetry and fantasy stories who never seems to find enough time to get to the library as much as she wants. Her hobbies are sleeping, reading, writing, drawing, and kung fu, which she thinks is a complete combo breaker. Vanessa is a rising freshman and proud animetard, and abuses her smiley rights on a daily basis. Her favorite books are the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, as well as the Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy “Trilogy”, and she can always be found listening to music.

Librarians who blog

We are the library staff of Wake County Public Libraries who love working with teens. We all come from different walks of life, different parts of the country, and grew up in different times. But, we were in high school once, too, (some of us when the dinosaurs roamed the earth) and remember what it was like…

Lindsey is a teen librarian from Eva Perry Library. Her teen years were spent in geeky activities such as choir, drama club, and the yearbook staff. She was in lots of those geeky honors classes where they sat on their desks and watched movies all the time. Just kidding . . . sort of. In high school, her favorite movie was Dead Poet’s Society, so much so, that she tried to get a teacher fired just so she could quote “Oh Captain, my Captain” in a tearful fit. She had a real thang for skateboarders (it must have been their shorthair cuts with long bangs called squeebs) and briefly tried wearing fishnet stockings for impact. She is ashamed that she lived during the time of the big, poofy hair and the tightrolled jeans.

Andrea is the Youth Services Librarian at East Regional Library. She never imagined she would end up having so much fun at work! She was always kind of nerdy in high school and had dreams of owning the Gap once with her boyfriend. She even planned a runaway elopement (thank goodness that never happened!). Andrea lived in many places, including West Chester, PA, where she went to 2 cool libraries: one had touch screens in the early 80s! and the other was like a storybook castle; Clearwater, FL (just for 10 months), Toledo, OH and Silver Spring, MD. Her best and worst memories of her teen years was boy chasing! She always fawned over this certain “hot” guy at school. With all of that moving, Andrea realized who she was, who she wanted to be, and learned to have fun too. Looking back, you make certain friends who stay with you forever and then the rest is history.

Connie is a librarian at Holly Springs Library. She loves her job, and she loves living in sunny and warm North Carolina, after her 27 years way up in Nor’urn Vermont! Yeah, you can’t get there from here (a typical Vermonter’s driving direction…) She can be found with her book bag full of books she’ll never have time to read but likes to keep trying. All books are welcome, but cheesy romance novels and overly serious fantasy books just don’t make the cut…sorry. Since she is new to the South, her musical tastes are growing, but once she heard the country ditty “I’m Better On Line….”, she just can’t take country music too seriously. When not at work, she can be found cooking, gardening, watching movies, running on trails and in parks with her favorite friend of 29 years (her husband, of course!), and she can also be found reading puppy training books, as she desperately tries to teach Ellie, her newest family member by way of the humane society, some manners!

Katy is a youth services librarian at the Cameron Village Library. As a teen, Katy was hopelessly klutzy, and being unable to participate in activities which required strong hand-eye coordination, she pursued interests including music, theater and writing. After studying music in college, she moved west from Pennsylvania to Seattle, then Seattle to San Diego, and from San Diego to Raleigh. In that time, she became a librarian, attended lots of concerts (she is partial to punk and metal), sang a lot of karaoke and put a lot of miles on her car! She is now determined to stay put. Katy has seven siblings, thirteen nieces and nephews, two cats, zero living grandparents and four tattoos.

Kathleen is a librarian at East Regional Library. Despite being a total nerd and bookworm all her life, she was surprised when she realized she wanted to be a librarian. No one else was surprised, though. In addition to being nerd, she also wasn’t too bad at sports. Okay, actually, she was good at softball but awful at skiing and tennis. She had amazing friends (mainly other nerdy girls) who saved her life many times, but greatly lamented the fact that she never had a boyfriend (she grew out of that). She was a diehard U2 fan (still is, actually). The rise of indie rock, specifically Weezer, made nerds cool, and Kathleen decided from that day on that she was cool. She’s still waiting for the rest of the world to agree.

Michele is a teen librarian at West Regional Library. She went to high school on Long Island just as Grunge made its way to the East Coast and everyone learned who Eddie Vedder was. She loved thrift store clothes, all things hippie, baking, and books – her mom wanted her to dress more like a girl and become a librarian. Instead, she decided to waitress and earn a degree in English from the University of Delaware. After eight years of jobs having nothing to do with English, she heeded her mother’s advice and got a job in a library shelving books…and loved it! After a ridiculous series of events, including (but not limited to) a cross-country road trip, beginner tap dance lessons, and a move to North Carolina with two ornery cats, she made her way down here to Wake County, where there are just as many New Yorkers as there are on Long Island. She still loves all things hippie and bakes a mean pie. Her mother is still saying, “I told you so.”

Edward is the teen librarian at the Southeast Regional Library, who moved to Garner in November.   Raised in NC, Edward  moved to Florida in the late ’80s.  He worked as a teen librarian and a head of youth services in a community library.  He co-sponsored a high school medieval club called the Paladin Society, which performs at Florida Ren Faires and community events, and helped start other high school clubs.   Heavily involved in the local poetry scene, he began one of the first Open Poetry Nights for Teens in his library system.  History has been one of Edward’s passions since he was very young, and he is an avid Historical reenactor.   His varied musical interests include Reggae and Steampunk, and he is a former DJ.   Edward has enjoyed traveling to music events everywhere from London to LA.    He has 2 wonderful cats!