CANADA CREATES

A Love for Literature

How Jessica Cunsolo turned the page to an inspiring career.

Name: Jessica Cunsolo
Creative medium: Books
App highlights: Wattpad, Discord, Procreate

Never give up on pursuing something that makes you happy. That’s the mantra that award-winning author Jessica Cunsolo lives by. Cunsolo has won a Watty Award for her work—these are the annual awards presented to outstanding writers who post their work on social storytelling app Wattpad.

Cunsolo’s young adult series With Me has captured the hearts of millions of readers.

Cunsolo’s journey to writing success began when she discovered the app, and she’s built up a remarkable following ever since her first title was published. “I’ve always loved reading,” she reminisces. “I never thought I wanted to be a writer, but I kind of fell into it when I found Wattpad.”

We spoke to Cunsolo about what inspires her to do her best work and the apps that she can’t be without.

Where It All Began

Drawn to Wattpad initially because of its library of free books, Cunsolo recalls reading whenever she could. At the age of 17, she discovered a story that she loved. “I noticed the book had over 100 million reads and the author was also 17,” she recalls. “I thought ‘Wow, this 17-year-old just like me can write a story that has this many fans, so what’s stopping me from doing that?’ So I started posting on Wattpad and everything took off from there,” she laughs.

Connecting With Community

Cunsolo frequently uses community and chat app Discord to participate in writing sprints—these are time-limited sessions of focused writing designed to help authors flex their creative muscles and overcome creative block.

“Writing can be such an isolating activity,” she explains. “I always have Discord open. I love that you can bounce ideas around with the author community, even just having someone to speak to during long days of writing.”

Cover Designs

While the covers for the With Me series are created by the cover team at Wattpad, Cunsolo makes the covers for her other books and banners on her profile using popular sketching and painting app Procreate. “I’m not the best drawer, but I like to explore drawing my characters to help me get them out of my imagination and onto paper. I also use Procreate to make my social media posts.”

The Layers panel in Procreate makes trying out colour combinations a breeze.

Reading for Pleasure (and Work)

To satisfy her insatiable love of reading, Cunsolo often borrows ebooks and audiobooks through her library card using Hoopla. “Reading lets me destress though I’m still ‘working’ in a sense—I get to see what else is out there in the market. And if I read a book, say, with a character who’s really grumpy, that might inspire me to write another grumpy character!”

The Social Side

Cunsolo loves using social media to de-stress, connect with other writers and readers, and to promote her books. She also uses it to share some of her own personal stories with her fans. When in need of a good laugh to reset during a writing break, the TikTok app is her go-to. She also loves using YouTube for her yoga practice.

“I noticed when I was sitting and writing for so long, I began developing back issues,” she explains. “It was because I was not doing enough stretching. I’m following some awesome creators on YouTube now to help me stretch and stay active.”

Write about what makes you happy.

—Jessica Cunsolo, Wattpad author

So what does creativity mean to someone who spends the majority of their time writing? “Creativity to me is having no limit to your imagination,” Cunsolo says. “It’s so important to write what you want to read; write about what makes you happy.

“I wanted to include parts of different genres in my books, so I did, and I think that’s why people like them so much—there is a little bit of everything in there for everyone.”

Jessica Cunsolo is an award-winning author whose three-part young adult series With Me has been read over 100 million times and is currently being adapted for TV. She credits her fans for supporting her over the years and helping her realize her dream of being a full-time writer. You can find her works on Wattpad and Audible.