USC sophomore Dallas Woodburn has words of wisdom for young, aspiring writers. “Kids tend to think, ‘I want to be a writer when I grow up,’ ” she said. “I want to help them realize ‘I can be a writer right now.’ ”

Woodburn should know. At 19 years old, the creative writing major has already self-published two books. Her work also has appeared in several national publications, including Family Circle, Writers Digest and Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul.

She wrote her first book, There’s a Huge Pimple on My Nose, when she was in the fifth grade. She self-published the book with a grant from her elementary school, producing a handful of staple-bound copies printed at the local Kinko’s. “My first printing sold out within two days,” she recalled, “and I had friends asking if I was going to make any more. Can you imagine how exciting that was for a fifth grader?”

Young students also responded favorably to the book. Woodburn visited classrooms and read excerpts of her stories. She discovered children were excited to learn that someone nearly their age could write and publish a book by herself. “A lot of them assumed that you had to be a grown-up to do that,” she said.

Those students gave Woodburn the idea for the Write On Foundation, a project she started in 2000 to encourage young people to write creatively. Woodburn used the proceeds from her own book to initiate a writing contest in her native Ventura. She then established a Web site that could reach out to more young people. Today, she said, the Write On contests receive entries from across the country.

She also has started an annual book drive under the Write On umbrella in an attempt to share the joys of reading with students who can’t afford books on their own.

In addition to the Ventura chapter, Write On now has affiliates in Pennsylvania, Idaho and Texas, and has recently become an official student organization at USC. Woodburn’s dream is to have Write On chapters in all 50 states.

Her most important advice for young writers is not to be paralyzed by perceptions about age. “With writing – or with anything you do, really – it’s helpful to find what sets you apart,” she said. In her own writing, she tries to show editors that her age is an asset, rather than a liability. “Lots of audiences don’t normally hear from a teen voice,” she said, “so I think of it as an advantage.”