Seventeen-year-old Gavin Hillstone is resigned to being miserable for the rest of his life. Left alone in the world after his parents died in a fire when he was four, he was placed in foster care, which for him meant ending up in an abusive home with an alcoholic adoptive father. Gavin’s only escape is in taking and creating images. His camera is his refuge from the unending torture and isolation of daily life in his “family.” Until he learns by accident that he isn’t alone in the world after all. His father’s parents are still alive and living in Washington DC. When he takes the plunge and travels 3,000 miles to find his grandparents, he learns that they—and he—are part of something much bigger, and more dangerous, than he could ever have imagined. Something that has always put his family at risk and that will now threaten his own life, while forever changing it. He learns that he is one of the last descendants of a small group of Photo Travelers—people who can travel through time and space through images. But his initial excitement turns to fear, when he soon discovers that he and his grandparents are being pursued by the fierce remnants of a radical European Photo Traveler cult, the Peace Hunters. What Gavin has, they want! His adventure will take him to past eras, like The Great Depression and the Salem Witch Trials. Gavin will have to discover who he really is and must make choices that spell the difference between life and death for himself, for the relatives he now knows and loves, and for the girl he will come to love. For Gavin, life will never be the same.

in which a girl hears what society says and tries to meet society's expectations

"They can try to control us but as long as there is free will and hope, we will never perish" We are the Creators. We made Earth. Without us you wouldn't survive. We provide food. We provide water. We provide shelter. Every resource from the land, we provide. You rely on us. And that is why I left. I couldn't stand the pressure and the control. I couldn't stand the way they manipulate. The Creators only want power. That's why I left. Because I am no longer a Creator. I am free.

Short stories that I write when I'm bored basically

Why all of society scares me. Including you. And me. (Like I started this book when I was 12 and the beginning is crap but I can't get rid of it without feeling guilty. So I'd recommend starting from the back but that's just me.)