As an actor, the person must form a character for the audience to see, but as a poet, the writer must create the character on a page. Actresses and poets pull at artistic strings to form ideas that readers can relate to on a personal level.

Aspiring actress and 2015 Starr’s Mill graduate Sydney Johnson emotionally created her first book of poetry. Her first step into her writing career, “Dear,” encompasses self-realization and self-love as well as connecting topics to real-life situations.

Using her heartening way of words, Johnson initiated the first of a long-line of poetry books and went public starting with Amazon. She began her career of writing poems starting in Writer’s Workshop her senior year of high school. After completing the class and graduating, she continued writing through the summer and into college. “I have a lot of journals filled with poetry,” Johnson said. “I was thinking one day that I should really use it.”

She finally decided to organize and format all her journals filled with poetry into a book of poems. She finished her book and published it, ready to share her situations and feelings with others in the hope that they can relate to her words. “I really like to write about real-life situations,” Johnson said.

Johnson currently attends Emerson College in Boston, Mass., and plans to major in acting. She is participating in a play called “Ophelia Perennial” and auditioning for television shows and movies.

For her, poetry is a way to step away from memorizing words and reciting them in front of an audience. Poetry allows her to express her way of thinking along with her feelings.  “I think [my] poetry allows the reader to form a deeper connection within themselves,” Johnson said.

“Dear,” can be found on Amazon.com for $7.