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What Do 6 Year Olds Have in Common With James Frey?

by Ally

Sometimes it’s easy to figure out what kind of story/poetry/essay will win a writing contest. It may be simply a matter of checking out past winners and generalizing their characteristics. One can then write a entry with a better chance of winning.

Seems that’s what a 6 year old from Garland, Texas and her mother did. The girl wrote an entry for a contest in which the prize was 4 tickets to a Hannah Montana concert. (For those without daughters under 14: Hannah Montana is the fictional alter ego of singer Miley Cyrus, the daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus, and is currently one of Disney’s #1 profit makers).

493827_tickets_1.jpg 

The little girl’s essay obviously had all it takes to win the prize: a sad story, angst, heartbreak, etc. Turns out, the essay was completely made up. False as false can be. The tale actually included the death of a fake father in Iraq! (Is the real father somewhere saying OUCH?)

The worst part is, the mom was the motivation behind the essay. She encouraged the child to do anything to win the tickets! Seems she didn’t follow the whole James Frey debacle, huh?

The sponsoring organization promptly took the prize away, and the mother has been roundly criticized in the media and blogosphere.

As a sidenote, I love the fact that there are writing contests for kids, and ones with prizes big enough for kids to want to hone their writing skills. I won several local writing contests as a kid myself, and it is definitely a grand encouragement. 

Lesson for writers: non fiction means non fiction.

Lesson for parents: Children learn by your actions, not your words.

Lesson for kids: Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana tickets are better earned by completing old-fashioned yard work! If you want to write, make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons.

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Posted in News, Writing Contests on January 3rd, 2008

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One Response to “What Do 6 Year Olds Have in Common With James Frey?”

  1. Writers Unbound » Blog Archive » What’s the Deal With All the Fakery? Says:
    March 4th, 2008 at 10:52 am

    […] couple weeks ago I posted about a mother and child who embellished an essay to win Hanna Montana […]

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