What it means to be strong is subjective to a person's experience. After years of pretending to be strong and okay through life's up and downs as a young, Black girl, a devastating breakup sends me into a whirlwind of depression and anxiety. Intense feelings and thoughts send me on a dark path I never thought I would travel. I suffer inside until I'm finally brave enough to reach out for support from my friends and family. Their overwhelming support and compassion lead me to getting the help I need to begin my healing and recovery journey. *** I am thrilled to be working with Maybelline to help bring awareness to Anxiety and Depression that many of us deal with - especially since the start of the pandemic. I hope that sharing my story helps us to truly be #bravetogether and break the stigma around mental illness. I would love to hear your story about your own journey. Even better - for every story submitted, Wattpad and Maybelline will donate $1 to Crisis Text Line! For more info and how to join in, visit wattpad.com/maybelline. Thanks for reading!

When you're looking after someone else, who's looking after you? Wattpad x Maybelline #BRAVETOGETHER

Includes the 2020 WATTYS SHORTS WINNER. * once upon a time two people fell in love they thought it was happily ever after but it wasn't ***** Short stories about loss, love, and living in a queer sort of world. Featuring the winner of the 2020 Wattys Shorts Award, This was a Home Once, and a story previously paywalled in a Wattpad Stars anthology, now free to read, Glitter on the Floor. Will update sporadically. *featured on CoffeeCommunity's 'Espresso' list* Images from Canva and Unsplash. Copyright ©️ CC Starfield.

Estera Montenegro grew up knowing one thing: she needs to be a wolf to survive. As an Enforcer in her community, it's her job to face off with law-breaking members in an arena while citizens watch. But when fate takes a drastic turn, she finds herself injured and homeless. That is until she crosses paths with Magnus Juarez. His community supplies electricity to the entire region, which makes them vital in the wasteland. Little does he know he just allowed a wolf through their gates because Estera is willing to do anything to survive and she's hungry for revenge on the people who wronged her. * * * 𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐎𝐧: 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐬 & 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐑𝐚𝐝𝐚𝐫 ✨✨ ᏟᎾᏉᎬᏒ ᏟᏒᎬᎪᏆᎬᎠ bᎽ ᏆhᎬ ᎥmmᎬᏁsᎬᏞᎽ ᏆᎪᏞᎬᏁᏆᎬᎠ @sereneur ✨✨

~ AVAILABLE ON AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/164434193X ~ She hated riding the subway. It was cramped, smelled, and the seats were extremely uncomfortable to sit on for hours on end. Now add a group of crazy mask-wearing, weapon-wielding, maniacs to the ever growing list of reasons why Gemma hated riding the subway. Gemma Conners is your average eighteen year old and for the past two years she's been riding the subway to and from school with no problem. She always expected the same ol' same ol'. Cramped spaces, hard seats, and perverts staring her up and down and "accidentally" bumping into her and blaming it on the train as it jostled people into one another. Never did she expect a group of masked men to rush in and hold everyone onboard hostage, demanding that they all play along with their sick and twisted idea of a "game". It was either that or die. To add on to her ever growing list of problems, one of the passengers onboard just so happens to be Archer Daniels, your typical high school "heartthrob" and Gemma's classmate. Her day just kept getting better and better. With Gemma's luck, she'd be lucky if she lasted five minutes. Yep. She really hated the subway. *Book Cover Credit: Irah Marie* Thanks again for making such an AMAZING cover!❤️

[FREE Novel with PAID bonus content] After an awful night out, social worker-Skylar Leighton-believes her life will always be vanilla. Learning to navigate the real world with only her sister by her side, she's made the most out of what she has. But between her string of failed relationships and busy day job, she's resigned to being the forever single sister. Just when her life has reached a steady plateau, someone from her past reappears and throws everything off track. A deviously handsome, brooding man who she only knows as Blondie. As much as she tries avoiding Blondie, something is lurking in his past and she's the only one who can help. Suddenly, Skylar's life is much more than vanilla. Will Blondie choose his past over Skylar, or will he let the past consume him? ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ FREE Novel. PAID bonus content. PSA: My book is not 9999 coins, that is a glitch, the bonus chapter should only be 15 coins total. WORDCOUNT: 75-80k words Copyright of Anna Steffey © -- All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

What happens when the star baseball player hits a home run into the art studio window? ***** All Sadie Lane Garner needed to make herself happy was a canvas and paintbrush. With copious projects due and little studio time, she volunteers to clean the art building in exchange for after-hour use of the university art supplies. But, she doesn't foresee the loud baseball games outside the workshop windows, the near-perfect view of the field, or the sight of devious, dark-haired athlete, Elijah Preston, known for his charm and home runs. And it doesn't take long for Sadie to find out he also has the perfect view of her. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Completed, 80-85k words Stand Alone novel [previously named The Art of Falling] Cover photo from Pexels edited on Canva Copyright of Anna Steffey All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. -- ONLY POSTED TO WATTPAD

Vivian works hard, plays even harder, but her senior year is derailed when the varsity linebacker moves in. ⋆☆⋆ Controlled chaos. Vivian Sok lives by it. With emotional walls that rival Everest, Vivian strives for organised mess in all areas of her life. Getting into Med school comes first. Vodka comes a close second. Screw the patriarchy at every opportunity. And never, ever, fall in love again. When college linebacker Jamie Tanner moves into a new hall of residence, he starts breaking Vivian's rules one by one. Theirs is a friendship with dangerous levels of fire. (And maybe something more.) ⋆☆⋆ [ Winner of @ContemporaryLit's Spring Write-Off Challenge 2021 ] [ Halston University #2. Stand-alone. Completed. Word Count: 80K - 90K ]

[SAMPLE ONLY. PUBLISHED IN OCTOBER 2016] - LINK TO PURCHASE E-BOOK ON MY MESSAGE BOARD! "Why are you being nice to me? I'm a freak, I'm blind," Riley had once asked her, but Ellie could never answer that question, and she would never be able to. Ellie Burke is just this simple town girl, who will never look at the wrong way about anyone. Moving to Florida means everything to her - she could turn over a new leaf, start a new life, and get the chance to actually be someone -and not just this useless nerdy girl. Everything's going well for her until she meets this boy in her English class - and he's the most interesting, unique person Ellie has ever met. The boy who lost his sight. She's going to fight for what her heart wants every step of the way. This is Ellie's story, and it's going to be one bumpy, complicated romance that's nothing like the fairy tales say. A story of hope, trust and what true love really means.

Deeply hurt by a lover's betrayal, Noah Hunter leaves a shattered life behind and moves to Spring Lakes to join his brother's pack. All he wants is a quiet place and some time to heal. Fate has other ideas. In the middle of the night, on a lonely stretch of road, Noah hits a dog. When he brings the injured animal to a veterinarian, he crosses paths with the singular, mysterious, and aggravatingly handsome Ambrose Thorne. When, after learning that Noah needs a place to stay, Ambrose invites him to his home, Noah thinks he may have found just the sort of peace and space he needs, and the last thing he expects is to become entangled in the heart of a mystery. While helping his brother Dane on a case involving a string of inexplicable thefts, Noah soon discovers that his new acquaintance is more than he seems and is inextricably tied to the strange burglaries. As the case becomes complicated by occult rituals, murder, and mythical beasts, Noah finds himself in more than one kind of danger - because while he doubts that anyone would want something so broken and torn, it seems like his heart might get stolen, too. He just hopes that the one who steals it and the thief at the heart of the mystery are not one and the same. ----- WARNINGS: This story contains strong language, some violence, and sex. ----- DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and in