Make a Difference Awards 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1757501707_969_grey-placeholder.png\")
![\"Martin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/f09ca100-9495-11f0-b391-6936825093bd.jpg.webp.webp\")
Martin Giles\/BBC<\/p>\n
She plans out her books in advance, types them up and then her mother helps with editing before a professional editor gets involved, she said<\/p>\n
Hephzibah said she had always loved going to her local library, but when she was about eight years old, she became disappointed she did not see enough “books that have characters of minorities; characters of different backgrounds”.<\/p>\n
“Because inside, black, Asian or ethnic minority people are not any different to anyone else and it’s just annoying that we’re not seen as equals,” she said.<\/p>\n
Luckily, she had always loved to write, scribbling ideas in notebooks, so she had a starting point for her first book.<\/p>\n
“I decided that the [lead] should be a black girl, just to show others that anyone can be the main character, and I decided to name her Hephzibah because it’s not a very common name.”<\/p>\n
The 58,000-word novel tells the story of a girl who is whisked way to a futuristic world where she attends the Wild Intelligence Academy, makes friends – and must stop robots from taking over.<\/p>\n
Hephzibah’s second novel continues the adventures and she admitted she would love it if the books inspired a TV series or film. <\/p>\n
She also said it was much easier to find books with minority representation in her local library now, adding: “It’s amazing how much it has progressed from 2020 to now – but more can still be done.”<\/p>\n
A Cambridgeshire County Council spokesperson congratulated Hephzibah on writing her book and said: “Local libraries, like Ely Library, are warm safe spaces at the heart of communities where everyone is welcome… and have an enormous range of books to help children and young people to blossom and grow.”<\/p>\n
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![\"Martin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/9c524280-9495-11f0-9cf6-cbf3e73ce2b9.jpg.webp.webp\")
Martin Giles\/BBC<\/p>\n