Name, Age, City and State: Caleb Jennings Breakey, 24, Lynden, Wash.

Job-title: Award-Winning Journalist, Mentor to Teen Writers, Speaker, Aspiring Novelist.

Web/blog site URL: http://www.calebbreakey.com/

Give us your job description in 25 words or less: I’m passionate about encouraging and refining Teen Writers into Rock Stars—those wordsmiths who are humble enough to learn, yet fearless enough to speak.

Describe a typical workday. Write-edit-read, read-edit-write. I could write those three words on a chalkboard—or do they use digitized chalkboards now?—all day.

I’m a journalist in the morning and afternoons, covering mostly sports but also news and features. Come nightfall, I write and edit my two novels, which are being considered by agents and publishers.

What led you to realize that you wanted to do this type of work? When I see a young person speak up when others are afraid to, I’m inspired. That’s why I charge teens to embrace their role as Difference-Makers; to never again despise their youth; to be true Rock Stars.

Did you have any heroes or mentors in your industry that you admired? Oh, too many to name. But the first and foremost would be Ted Dekker. His Circle Trilogy (now Circle Series) showed me the power of story, and now I’ve been privileged to read several of Ted’s Advance Reader copies, including his latest, Immanuel’s Veins, in which my review is printed.

What type of education or training was required to land your job? I earned a degree in journalism at Western Washington University. That, along with a couple of internships at The Olympian and MLB.com, got me into the field of journalism.

For all of you baseball fans out there, the team I covered for MLB.com—70,000 words over five months—happened to be the dreaded and beloved New York Yankees. I took the No. 4 train every day and had to walk two miles through the Bronx at 1 a.m. The Big Apple is an awesome place, but I learned to walk fast. =)

What do you love most about your job? Mentoring. I love encouraging young writers and being a part of their creative journey. It’s such an honor when they say I helped them or sparked the creative gene inside them.

What one part of your job do you wish you could hire someone else to do? Nothing and everything. =) I love writing, editing, mentoring, speaking—they’re all fantastic and wonderful. Yet time always seems short, so I often wonder what it would be like to devote my time to just writing, or just mentoring, or just editing. But you know what? I think everybody thinks that.

What advice would you give to teenagers wanting to get into your field of work? Let’s do this Olympics style: The BRONZE goes to reading. You have to expose yourself to all sorts of styles to fully enrich your own craftsmanship. The SILVER goes to writing. Putting words on paper is to the writer what going to the gym is to the body builder. Writing is a muscle, and you have to work it every day. The GOLD goes to humility. Masters of the craft say writers need to develop a thick skin. Rejection is tough and a thick skin is a great defense. Yet I would like to add this: Writers also need to be hungry to learn in spite of the Red Sea of Ink. They need to expect their work to be critiqued heavily and look forward to conquering—albeit humbly—every part of the craft.

How does your job allow you to use your God-given gifts? Being a journalist, I’m always listening to fun and interesting people. I believe this is my gift from God, and mentoring allows me to listen to Teen Writers through their writing and discuss every aspect of The Wordsmith with them.

Do you have any hobbies or off-hours pursuits that teenagers would find of interest? Rock Band, anyone? I’ve been known for getting into songs with a gusto more suitable for a break dancer, and I’ve been warned to never again use a coffee table as a platform. What can I say? I’m passionate. =)

I’m also a lover of improv. My wonderful wife and sister-in-laws often create scenarios for me to act out, and it usually ends up with all of us falling on the floor.

And for all those competitors out there, I love playing baseball, softball, basketball and football. I wish I could round up all the Teen Writers at www.calebbreakey.com for a good game of kick ball or something.