Kaylin, A Second Look

For sixteen-year-old Kaylin, taking a second look at things is a way of life. With every year, she seems to find new ways of doing this, from reading widely to inventing tales of her own to photographing the lively happenings and haunts of Fayetteville. And, lucky for the Fayetteville Public Library, Kaylin finds time in her busy schedule to volunteer in the children’s department, where she shares her excitement about books and movies with all who enter.

As you might expect from a budding fiction writer and photographer, Kaylin is Observant with a capital “O”. She has developed the habit of reviewing her favorite books and movies because “you can catch things the second time around that you didn’t notice before.” Book-wise, Kaylin’s picks feature both contemporary fantasy and historical fiction, like J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series and Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code, as well as classics like To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men. Her taste in film spans a broad spectrum of time and genre, including Casablanca with Bogey and Bergman, the romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally, Disney’s The Little Mermaid, and innovative screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Like her preferences in entertainment, Kaylin isn’t all serious. “Love songs by boy bands and the Shopaholics novels are my guilty pleasures,” she giggles, looking down at her flowery flip-flop clad feet. Flashy footwear is her trademark, and she wears flip-flops in almost all weather, “until it’s just way too cold. I even wear toe-socks!” she laughs.

Maybe the most remarkable thing about Kaylin is her intuition. Already, she seems to understand that time will bring to her writing and photography exceptional depth and insight, the beginnings of which are plain to see just talking with her. She dreams of traveling to places where she can experience different ways of life — she even wants to try skydiving — but, on the flip side, she takes every opportunity to examine all the facets of life here in her hometown. On paper, her focus and introspection become whimsical short fiction narratives and telling images. She is ever in pursuit of the Perfect Candid Shot, “the shot that tells the story of a situation, or the mood the subject is in, simply by an expression or body language. Those photographs are golden.” We think Kaylin is too.