Oh, that’s Rich – B.R. teen’s novel puts a pen on bullying

Akosua Twum returned to school this fall standing a bit taller among her eighth-grade classmates. It wasn’t a growth in height but in confidence. Over the summer, she published Rich Girl Club, her first young-adult novel.

Before the book came out, Twum had difficulty speaking up for herself. She has a verbal lisp. That became the source of mean-spirited attention from some classmates. Her unique name, Akosua, was another target for bullies.

“I had some trouble fitting in at school,” she says. “I wasn’t really intending to write a book. I started writing to get my feelings out.”

Rich Girl Club centers on Cassie, who is finding her place in a new state and a new school. Written like a diary, the novel follows Cassie as she gains strength, makes friends and eventually enters a fashion show.

Cassie doesn’t have the author’s verbal lisp, but she must navigate her way at an elite new school with a few mean girls in the mix. At first, Cassie has only her mother to lean on, which resonated with Akosua’s mother, Patricia Twum.

“The single-mother part was touching for me,” she says. “Here’s a story with a single mom trying to do better by the daughter.”

Although Akosua’s father lives nearby, since her brother went to law school in another state, home life with Patricia has had its challenges.

One night Patricia caught her daughter staying up far past her bedtime. “I caught her early one morning, writing what she said was a book.”

The teen author describes the scene more vividly.

“I was on the floor with my laptop, and I look up, and my mom is standing in my room,” she says. “She thought I was secretly talking to a boy [on the computer] at 1 a.m.”

Her mother took away the laptop, and after a tense week, Akosua was able to email the finished story to her brother. “He talked to Mom, and she looked at my story. She was shocked, but very proud, too,” Akosua says.

Akosua dedicated the novel to her mother. The Acknowledgments section cites her father as the editor and her brother as the publisher.

“I think for her, it will give her confidence,” Patricia Twum says. “Yes, she has a lisp and has some problems fitting in, but this book is hers. She did this.”

Akosua’s teacher, Elizabeth Gouner, knew that she was an avid reader and was impressed by how accurately she captured the style of teen books currently on the market.

“She captured a lot of what goes on in young people’s minds, and it reminded me of what it was like to be back at that age,” Gouner says.

One of her mother’s joys is seeing how the book and its author can help other young people dealing with bullying at school.

“At the book signing, Akosua wrote, ‘Keep hanging on,’ and ‘You can do it.’ She could now say to those children, ‘It’s okay.’ That was really something!”

Rich Girl Club is available at amazon.com.