WEBVTT

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Hello everyone!

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The 22nd of September
is going to be a big day for me.

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It'll be the launch of my first book
published by a major publishing house.

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You may think: 16 is a young age
to be releasing a book,

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when I am taking my French exams in July.

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But in fact, this story started long ago!

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I was 11 years old
and I was given seven books

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which I'm sure you all know:
the Harry Potter saga.

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I spent ten days and nights
reading the series,

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hiding the books under my bed

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so that my parents
wouldn't confiscate them.

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You know how it goes, "It's bed time,
you have school tomorrow."

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And when I turned the last page,

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my passion for literature was born.

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Then I got through
an astronomical amount

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of best-selling children's books.

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I even started to write a bit in private.

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But what really changed my life was an ad

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that I found in "Le Journal de Mickey,"
a comic I was an avid reader of.

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It was to become a jury member

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for the reader's choice
of 'Le Journal de Mickey.'

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The idea was simple:

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write some reviews 
that would appear in the comic,

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and then eventually, choose
the Children's Book of the Year

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alongside seven other jurors.

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The day before the deadline,

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I wrote a review, as requested, 
which I posted the next day

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on my way to school,
dated as per postmark.

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Two months later,
I was in the car with my mom

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when she received a call
and asked me to listen to it

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on her voice mail.

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That's how I learnt I had been selected.

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And so started my work as a book critic.

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Four months reading books,
four months giving my opinion on them,

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and four months during which I met Camille

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who also loved literature,
and would become my best friend.

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Then, when the competition came to an end,

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we realised that everything
was about come to an end.

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Imagine the thing
at the center of your life -

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and I'm not talking about school -
stopped just like that.

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So, we thought, why not
keep writing reviews together?

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We no longer had 'Le Journal de Mickey'

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and didn't want to start a blog
like everyone else ....

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We decided to launch an online magazine

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like 'Le Journal de Mickey'
but a digital one.

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But we needed a name.

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Then, I remembered a magazine

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I had launched with some
of my classmates in year five.

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Our teacher had asked us to produce
the front page for a magazine.

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We had so much fun doing it

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that we decided to go on
with the magazine

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and we got it published 
with around 30 copies.

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It was about six pages long
and it came out every week.

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Eventually, we published 17 issues.

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We were nine years old and 
our magazine was called "L'Petit Mardi"

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So when it came to launching 
our online magazine,

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Camille and I thought, why not have 
a bit of nostalgia and re-use that name?

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That's how "L'Petit Mardi" was born.

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But we also needed some structure,
something concrete,

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to surpass the digital.

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So we thought - well, I thought -

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let's set up our own publishing house.

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The idea seemed complicated at the time.

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Especially because I was
14 years old: still a minor!

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It made things a bit complicated.

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I thought, why not use
my parents as figureheads?

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It was as simple as that!

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In a few days, the company was set up

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with a modest start-up capital:

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100 euros of savings from my piggybank,

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most of which came
from my grandparent's wallet,

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L'Petit Mardi lasted four years.

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In total, there were 60 issues,

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all of which were written by teenagers
from around the world.

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L'Petit Mardi continued to grow and since
January 2016, even spread to paper

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with a run of 15,000 copies, distributed
through 500 points of sale in Normandy,

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with the belief that paper
and digital could coexist.

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We wanted to do things differently
than other magazinesgoing digital today.

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We wanted to show the opposite,

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that a digital magazine
coming offline, was possible.

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With our magazine, all you need to do
is take your phone and scan the pages.

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Then you have an online version
thanks to virtual reality.

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We brought the two together
and our goal is to, within five years,

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make our magazine the number one
free French language-culture magazine

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entirely written by teenagers.

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But you may think, the essence
of a publisher is to publish novels.

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Earlier, I told you I had started to write

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while on the Reader's Choice competition.

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I said to myself,
"I need to publish something."

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But what could I publish?

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That novel I had written,
a real imperfection,

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because it was 40 pages full of mistakes.

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But I might as well seize the opportunity,

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I never found a publisher,
so I just went for it.

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Three weeks later, I was taking part
in a small exhibition in my town.

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And ... at the end of the day,
I realized I'd sold 25 copies of my book.

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25 copies, it's nothing really,
just 0.001% of what Marc Levy,

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or Guillaume Musso would sell in a year.

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But to me it meant the world.

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And then someone asked me,
"Where's book number three?"

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"Is there going to be a sequel?" etc.

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Someone even pre-ordered a copy online.

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So ...

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I thought I would continue
despite the first book's modest success.

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I finished book three, book two sorry,
which I published three just months later.

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Come release day, to tell the truth,
everything was a bit rushed.

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I was doing my year ten internship
at France Bleu Normandie,

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and I had to call a local journalist.

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All the editing team heard
my conversation ...

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I had foolishly called
with everyone around.

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Anyway, a journalist, intrigued, came
to see me and asked me a few questions.

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At the end of the day,
I had two interviews booked.

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And so it began!

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The following months were
the most intense of my life.

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BFM TV, France 2,

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Canal +, Europe 1, to name but a few.

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All that helped me to sell around
1,500 copies of my books

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which is huge for
a self-published book in France.

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Then, at this point I thought,

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why not try and make my dream a reality?

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Which was to be published
by a famous publisher.

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And there, I must admit
it was a bit complicated.

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I was faced with closed doors
and emails shooting me down:

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"You're too young. Your book is rubbish."

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In fact, I almost gave up on the idea.

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Then one day,
when I had just given up hope,

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I had an extraordinary encounter.

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I'd been invited to the yearly
Reader's Choice Award ceremony

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for Le Journal de Mickey.

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(Laughter)

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What's funny? The Journal is great!

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Well, I was at Fnac des Ternes
and I was browsing the library section

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when I saw a man, standing all alone.

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That man ... I thought I recognized him.

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I Googled his face, did some research,

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I realized that this man was Michel Lafon,

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the founder and CEO
of Michel Lafon publishing

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and I had seen his face on a video
advertising Natou's book -

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she's a Youtuber - 
a few months earlier.

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So, I went to see him,
I introduced myself.

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I explained to him what I was doing, etc.

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He looked at me and in a very formal way
he said, "Call me tomorrow."

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So, I called him the next day
and he he gave me an appointment

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a week later near Neuilly-Sur-Seine.

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I went there, to his office, with my dad.

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I have to admit, the meeting was fruitful

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and I'm really happy to tell you
that my next book,

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the sequel to the adventures,
in fact the first in a new saga,

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is being published by 
Michel Lafon in exactly nine days.

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They haven't printed 25 copies, but 9,000.

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(Applause)

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Thank you!

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Thank you very much.

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Thank you!

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Today I'm happy to be able to say

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that I'm part of the small group
of teenage authors.

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Because I'm not the only one!

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There's about
a good thirty of us in France,

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as well as a good number abroad.

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We all share the conviction of wanting
to inspire young people to read.

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Because, at school they give us
the Odyssey and Le Cid to read,

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you all must have read them,

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and I'll admit they made me want to sleep
rather than read, personally.

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But, I think we need to encourage
young people to start with teenage books

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you can find in bookshops,
like Harry Potter.

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but also the Hunger Games,
Divergent and so on.

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Then, once they've developed
the necessary maturity in high school,

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they can start to read the classics.

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Today, I think I can say that I've always
believed in the opportunites I've had

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and as a result, I've tried
to create my own path.

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Age will never change that, whether
you are 16, 20, 30,40, 50 or even older.

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as long as you are passionate 
about what you are doing,

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as long as what you're doing
excites you and feels important,

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then you must seize your opportunities.

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Marcel Proust said:

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"Boldness rewards those who know
how to seize their opportunites."

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I have only one message this evening.

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Make the most of it! Thank you!

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(Applause)