Amaya James is a 13-year-old author, illustrator, and toymaker from Ontario, Canada — and she has been building her creative world since she picked up a pencil at age four.

She works in both traditional and digital mediums, sketching in notebooks and creating digitally on Procreate. Her imagination does not turn off. Everyday shapes, random objects, and passing moments all become characters with personalities, stories, and worlds of their own. She is also teaching herself 3D animation using Blender, because there is always something new to learn and she refuses to wait for someone to teach her.

At nine years old she published her first book. At thirteen she is releasing her second. Some kids talk about what they want to do someday. Amaya believes the only age that matters is the one you are right now.

Emmie's Next Chapter is a fast-paced graphic chapter book that blends humor, expressive illustration, and short bursts of storytelling — written and drawn entirely by a teenager who has already sold nearly 1,000 copies of her debut and delivered hundreds of presentations to students across Ontario.

She hopes every kid who reads her books or hears her speak walks away with one belief: you do not have to wait.

And when she is not drawing — well, honestly, she is always drawing.