MIAMI GARDENS, FLA. (WSVN) - Stories of hardship and hope written by students at a South Florida high school are among several dozen that were selected to be included in a new book.

“Dear Freedom Writer” is comprised of writings from 50 current and former students from across the country.

Two of them, Miami Norland Senior High students Janayah Philome and Darell Young, spoke with 7News on Thursday.

“I’m very happy that I got a chance to participate in this book. It’s been a long journey,” said Young.

Philome said she expresses herself through writing.

“I write about injustice, femininity. As an African American woman, we are pretty much masculinized a lot, so in my poetry, I write about things that I would want to say,” she said.

Dr. Precious Symonette, their creative writing teacher, said the students’ writing is personal.

“We are talking about everything from depression, mental illness, heartache, living without parents, the struggles that we have endured throughout our lives,” she said.

Symonette said everyone should read the book because children feel adults aren’t really listening to them.

“I also feel that it allows them to write themselves into existence,” she said.

Norland senior Dean Fenelon agrees with this observation.

“I’ve always been kind of a weird outcast type of person, and joining Dr. Sym’s creative writing class since 10th grade, every year just built a portion of me into a stronger and stronger person,” he said. “There’s a lot of things that I can’t physically say with my voice, but with my pen, I can always write it down.”

“I cry every time I read a poem,” said Young.

The students said that in order to be a successful writer, an author has to be vulnerable.

“A poem is more than just words to me,” said Young. “A poem is a door to everything I have to show everybody else that it’s not bad to be not OK.”

The Norland students said they hope to travel to California to meet the other writers who were also published in “Dear Freedom Writer.”

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