Today on fLiP iT fRiDaY, we’re chatting with Steph Bowe from Hey, Teenager of the Year, aka @stephbowe on Twitter.

Describe a typical day in your life.

Well, the aliens bring me back around five in the morning, and I’ll sleep for a bit before I get up. I usually go for a run to the lake, do some schoolwork (I’m finishing high school by correspondence), chuck some washing in the machine. Then it’s spending way too long working on my blog, Twitter, emails and Myspace. I might have a photography or drama class in the afternoon, and I’ll walk to that, if the weather’s good. I go to the library and do some schoolwork there during the week. In the evenings I’ll usually help with dinner and do some writing. I’m incredibly lucky to have such a relaxed life (us Aussies are either really laid back or just plain lazy).

Relaxed? Wow I really need to step up my game. These bloggers are high energy! Maybe the Bowe family will adopt me and let me study game-stepping-up in Australia! 😀

What is your favorite YA book and why? Or, which YA book has had the most profound effect on you and why?

I don’t think I can name a single book and say this is my favourite ever, but this week I love Everything Beautiful by Simmone Howell. I love personally signed books especially.

What are 5 of your favorite things?

1. Writing
2. Photography
3. Dance
4. Lipstick
5. Zombies

I can’t help but imagine that list as a combo. A lipstick-wearing zombie dancer… hey, wait a second…

How long have you been blogging, and how did you get your book blogging start?

I started Hey, Teenager of the Year in March of 2009, but my blog has had many reincarnations, all the way back to 2007. My old blogs didn’t last mainly because of lack of enthusiasm and lack of content – then this year I discovered the YA book blogging community, finally got serious with my writing and started HTotY (that’s an acronym for Hey, Teenager of the Year, and I think it looks rather snazzy). I’m am also working with Kristi of The Story Siren on The YA Blogosphere, a more detailed directory than the YA Book Blog Directory, that will hopefully become a reference site for authors and publishers looking for book bloggers to promote their books. I suggest you check it out!

I will check it out. Kristi is awesome, too, so I’m sure I won’t be disappointed! Everyone. Go check it out!

Are you planning any upcoming new features or special content on your book blog and/or is there anything specific you want potential new visitors to know about your blog?

I always have lots of interviews planned – established YA authors, aspiring authors, book bloggers, and soon some artists – which are a lot of fun; asking people about their imaginary friends especially. I’m also keeping everyone updated on how my novel is going, sharing my photographs and soon I’ll share my tales of trying to seduce The Anonymous Library Boy.

Yes, please! More seducing library boy tales! Yay! And of course, best of luck with your novel. I love that so many book bloggers are also novel writers. I mean, it makes sense, right? But it’s also awesome.

In addition to blogging, what other creative pursuits do you enjoy?

Oh, how I love dance! It’s my biggest regret that I stopped doing dance when I was seven, because I love it so much now, but when I leap and twirl people freak out because they think I’m having an epileptic fit. When I’m not scaring people with interpretive dance, I write. I’m an aspiring author, and I’ve currently got a YA novel under consideration at a publishing house here in Aus. Fingers crossed!!

Well, that was the novel update I was looking for! *Crossing all fingers immediately and indefinitely!* Wouldn’t it be cool to write a novel and then create an interpretive dance based on said novel? Hmmm. I hope that plants a seed for all you dancer-writers out there. Your welcome. 😉

What do you want to be when you “grow up”?

I don’t think you ever have to grow up. My parents have eluded adulthood for over twenty years. But if I absolutely have to… an elephant.

❤ Elephants!!!!

What are 3 things you’d like to do or accomplish in your lifetime?

Only three?

1. I want to live to see complete racial and gender balance,
2. have people admire me for my writing and my vivacity (though the closest I am to vivacious at the moment is curvaceous),
3. and to be at peace with who I am.

Those are the top three – just missing out are tapping into my psychic ability and owning a pet baby elephant.

Hmmm. So what am I thinking right…. NOW?

Tell us something that people who know you in real life would be surprised to learn about you.

I love giving people massages. I secretly want to become a masseuse, not a psychologist.

Really? Wow. Now I *really* want to be adopted into the Bowe household.

*Turns aching shoulders your way and clears throat subtly*

Now, it’s time for Apocalypse Mad Libs!

If I ever had to face a legion of zombie strippers I’d want Simmone Howell on my side, because her books have attitude and they’re not afraid to use it..

If she wasn’t available, I’d take Riley Rose from the book, Everything Beautiful, because she’s absolutely fearless.

In any case, if I only had 1 day to live before the end of the world, I’d eat all my favourite things – fairy bread and custard and toasted marshmallows and then I’d tell everyone, “Well, at least we had fun.”

So I’d heard of fairy floss (cotton candy), but fairy bread? I just had to look it up. And I’m so glad I did, because do you know what it is? Sliced bread, buttered and then covered in sprinkles! Why didn’t I think of that!?

Thank you, Steph, for joining us on fLiP iT fRiDaYs and introducing us to the delectable magic that is Fairy Bread! Check out Steph’s blog at Hey, Teenager of the Year and don’t forget to follow her @stephbowe on Twitter.

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fLiP iT fRiDaY is a weekly feature at SarahOckler.com showcasing the fabulous YA book bloggers and reviewers who share young adult fiction with the world and inspire raves, rants, intelligent discourse, and a whole bunch of book-lovin’ among readers everywhere. If you’d like to be featured on fLiP iT fRiDaY, contact me!