Juniors Hallie Balogh and Autumn VanHorn recently won the Inspirational Women in Literature Award. 

Neither of the girls were aware that they were nominated for this award until receiving an email informing them. They were nominated by two different people for the award – one was an author who attended the DV’s career day and one was someone who interviewed them on a separate occasion. 

“I was trying to contain my excitement because I was in a mock trial, but I needed to calm down because it could have been a scam and I needed to be sure,” Balogh said.

Balogh immediately texted VanHorn in excitement to check her email, and they replied to the email together. 

One of the people who nominated the girls showed them that it was real and that she was the one who nominated them. 

“We are really proud of ourselves,” Vanhorn said.

Moving forward, the girls are focusing on the second book of the series while trying to find time to balance writing and school.

“I’m excited to continue writing the second book, which we have been working on,” Balogh said.