Freshman Riley de León always wanted to write a book.

“I remember being 8 years old with my first computer with Microsoft Word,” de León said. “I always loved writing.”

His passion followed him through to his senior year at Greenwood Laboratory School in Springfield, Mo. when he got the idea for his first self-published book, “Life’s Not Always Written in Times New Roman: The Untold Stories of People Like You.”

De León’s inspiration for his novel was triggered by a rocky high school relationship. He wanted to redirect his negative energy from that into something positive to help others.

He worked to get stories from a variety of people, each story fueling its own separate chapter. They stemmed from a range of people from all over, telling of difficult circumstances and relationship issues.

“It started as really personal and once it became a reality, we realized it could reach a new scope of people and realized the story was so much bigger than we intended it to be,” said Lauren Downie, a high school friend of de León. “It stemmed from personal relationships and expanded from there and how relationships can affect life.”

As the four-year editor of his high school yearbook, de León has a love of fonts, which inspired the title of his book.

“It was one of those things where you’re laying in bed at 3:30 in the morning, and it just comes to you,” de León said.

De León said his drive to help people started long before he began his book.

In high school, de León organized two nonprofit organizations. His sophomore year, he started a club called Sustainable Solutions. With the assistance of several community sponsors, it was made into an actual organization. He also started ETHICS at the end of his junior year, which put on a variety of events that mostly centered around health care.

Sustainable Solutions is where everything really started for de León.

“In high school I wanted to find a place,” de León said. “I made really good grades, but I wanted something more. I wanted to go a different route. Everything was just kind of a ripple effect starting at that point that got me where I am today.”

After de León’s book took off, family friend Will Bowen, an international best-selling author and founder of A Complaint Free World, hired him as his personal assistant.

“(Bowen) and I had become really close,” de León said. “It still blows me away that he chose me, an 18-year-old freshman in college, to be his assistant when he could’ve chosen anyone. It’s been amazing, and I’m still so grateful that he took a chance on me.”

Downie said she was equally thrilled to see the change in the young author.

“It was really neat to see (de León) grow as a person because it started so small, and we saw how it had an impact on everyone around us,” she said. “(When the book was published), it was a moment that proved you could do whatever you wanted.”

Following the life-changing moment of the book’s publication, Bowen said he enjoyed watching de León transform.

“I’ve known Riley since he was six, and he’s grown into one of the sharpest men I have ever met,” Bowen said. “That’s why when I had the opportunity for a new assistant, it just came to me.”

Later in life, de León said he wants to continue to help people.

“I like to see myself moving forward,” de León said. “Career-wise, I want to be a motivational speaker. Because I’ve been in and out of jobs since I was in eighth grade, I learned that I want my work to be a lifestyle more than just simply a job.”

Although de León has done so much to help others, he said he still doesn’t have all the answers.

“I don’t have it all figured out,” de León said. “I learn something new every day. I guess if I had any advice it would be that everyone is going through similar experiences and people need to start to realize the world isn’t as big as it seems.”

But what de León does know is that his book has a way of bringing other people together.

“I decided that if I could get people to tell their stories from all over, there’s so much more room for people to relate,” de León said. “Regardless of if you’re from Missouri or California or Canada, everybody has a story to tell. There are always going to be people who are better than you and people who try to tear you down, but if you believe you can do it, you will. There’s nothing that can stand in your way.”