An Ilford woman who launched a publishing company for young authors is celebrating the publication of its seventh book.

Eleni Sophia, 22, founded Perspective Press after being frustrated by publishers’ lack of interest in teenage writers.

“When I was 13 I had written a novella but I was constantly getting rejected from publishers because I was too young,” she claimed.

In 2017, Eleni decided to strike out on her own, self-publishing ‘Good Morning to Goodnight’, a poetry collection about the end of her first relationship.

Eleni, at that point an 18-year-old student at Ilford Ursuline Sixth Form, said she realised there was a market for young voices and registered Perspective Press with Companies House.

In 2019, during her second year at Queen Mary University, Eleni was recommended by the university’s enterprise department to take part in an accelerator programme.

She said: “After that so many great events came up – I ended up winning funding, which helped us market the platform more. That year I think I turned over £16k.”

The company’s initial call-out asked for submissions from young writers from across the world, and they received more than 400 in the first few weeks.

Ilford Recorder: 'Stardust and Butterflies' by 15-year-old author Nathaniel Lews'Stardust and Butterflies' by 15-year-old author Nathaniel Lews (Image: Perspective Press)

Their latest release, by 15-year-old Nathaniel Lews, is called Stardust and Butterflies, which documents the British author’s experiences as a young black boy.

“You see the world from his perspective,” explains Eleni. “The whole symbolism of the book is a butterfly coming out of its cocoon.”

Eleni revealed that it sometimes “takes a lot of patience”, as her authors have to balance their writing with exams like GCSEs.

She said her own book, This One’s For You, has been their most successful title to date.

For Eleni, giving a voice to young people is important because “they are the next generation” and finds purpose in helping them be heard.

“I thought, do you know what, why not just create this and see how it goes. And it actually became such a big success that I’m so glad I took that path,” she said.

“The huge goal is to be as big as Penguin,” she says, but adds that, for now, they just want to “continue growing and taking on young authors.”

The company is working on an anthology composed of writings from schoolchildren and Eleni hopes to launch with a Christmas edition, before publishing anthologies seasonally.

They are currently accepting poetry submissions from under-20s.