It's rare to meet a 17-year-old author of something that's actually very put together and very good. Over an egg cream soda and a ginger vanilla at Belfast's Chocolate Shoppe, Hila Shooter pulls a manuscript with editor's marks out of her backpack. She's a little shy about showing it to me, even though it is professionally typeset and in its final editing stages before publication.

It's called Ticket to Ride, How Teens Can Fundraise and Realize Our Dreams, a project that took only a year to write (only!) with help and guidance from her parents, both former publishers. They might have encouraged her, but Hila did all of the legwork, including starting a campaign launched less than a month ago on the project funding site Kickstarter. Her own fundraising goal to get the book published was $3,500 and as of our meeting, she had already surpassed that, with donations totaling $3,750 from 86 backers.

Donations on Kickstarter came almost 100-percent from people Hila and her family knew personally. "People were just incredibly generous," she said.

This is not Hila's first successful fundraising campaign. Last year, she wanted to take a three-month semester program to go to Ecuador. As a home-schooled student from Monroe, she had the drive, the time and the desire to explore a new culture — but not the funds. It was going to take nearly $12,500 to go there, and though at the time she wasn't sure how she'd do it, she'd made up her mind it was going to happen.

An excerpt from Ticket to Ride details her resolution and the initial reaction from her friends:

  “You’re raising $8,500?”
    I let my finger drop from Ecuador on the world map I was using to show my friend Clayton. “More or less.” I hadn’t told him that $8,500 was just the tuition, leaving $4,000 in expenses unmentioned.
    He raised his eyebrows.
    We had been friends since we were six, running around with his little brothers and my little sister, playing tag and climbing trees. I knew him well enough to know that right now, he thought I was crazy.
    “How?”
    I shrugged nonchalantly. I didn’t tell him that just that morning I’d been almost in tears, not knowing how I would ever succeed.
    He looked skeptically at Ecuador on the map, then shrugged, too. “Okay then.”
     We went back to playing cards with his brothers. Neither of us knew at that moment that in a year’s time, he would also be on the plane.
    Later, as I told him more about trekking in the Andes and exploring the jungle, his eyes lit up. I showed him the Kroka Expedition blogs from past Ecuador semesters, written by the students as they lived their adventure. A smile spread across his face as he began reading.
    When I saw Clayton again the following week, his skepticism had melted and been replaced with his own thoughts of adventure. We were swinging on the play-set with my sister Cori when a friend walked by and asked how we were.
    “We’re both raising $12,000 to go to Ecuador,” Clayton called back.
    She stopped.
    “Wow, that’s… a lot.” I could tell she was trying not to discourage us. She smiled, the unspoken question in her face: “How?”
    “Well, good luck.” The meaning behind her words was abundantly clear, “good luck with that.”
    Her unspoken skepticism stung, but she had a point. I had no idea how we were going to raise it all.

Without using Kickstarter, Hila reached her Ecuador goal the old-fashioned way. She didn't ask her parents for the money. She didn't put it on a credit card. She didn't read The Secret and hope the funds would magically appear in her account. She put together a plan and worked for it by doing a series of odd jobs such as gardening and dog walking, as well as busking on the street playing her fiddle. Additionally, she tapped into all of her networks and sent out fundraising letters. This is what makes her one of the Rad Kids. The girl made her own dream come true by working hard for what she wanted. Gah! Why is this such a radical concept? Perhaps because we see endless examples of the Millennial Generation getting whatever they want — all they have to do is ask for it.

The Ecuador experience gave her the confidence and the material to write Ticket to Ride. But lest anyone thinks that was easy, the writing itself was a challenge that got her down at times. Her first draft was just a bunch of lists and anecdotes that her parents helped her shape into a how-to nonfiction book. 

"I got so discouraged," she said. "I felt like I was completely patronizing people in my writing — that was my biggest struggle, like trying to find the balance between telling my own story and telling other people how to do it. It was really tricky. I didn't want to be like 'do this or do that' and I didn't want to be (and here her voice changes to the patronizing tone) 'oh look what I did. I'm so cool.'"

It took multiple drafts to get the manuscript to where it is today, which strikes just the right balance between personable narration and realistic goal setting for teens who want to achieve a big dream on their own. Her father, an editor, was "immensely helpful," she said. When asked what she was most proud of about the book, again, her answer is no less than a superlative-laden tribute to her parents. "Well, first-off I have extremely incredible, amazing, really supportive parents. That's probably the biggest thing," she said.

Her advice to teens who want something badly but don't have the money or even the parental support is simple. "I just received an email last night from a kid who wants to go on the semester program to Vermont like I did in Ecuador and what I told him is getting a fundraising letter out to as many people as he can is a great start and to give something free back as a token of appreciation," she said. "For me, I had a bunch of handmade cards I gave to people who helped fund my trip, like a little 'thank-you.' It helps to have a specific dream you're shooting for and have a specific amount as a goal. Then look for odd jobs and get to know the people you're working for. Sometimes when they realize how hard you're working toward something, they will pay you a little bit more toward your goal."

Some of her book's tips to get kids to find work toward their own goals include:

• Babysit
• Clean houses
• Rake leaves
• Walk dogs
• Deliver newspapers
• Mow lawns/garden
• Tutor
• Utilize your skills to design something and sell it.

So far the money has been used to have the book professionally edited, designed and typeset, with the remaining funds slated to self-publish around 500 copies under her own imprint, Mountain Song Press, in the spring. She's not quite sure what she needs to do yet to market and distribute it, as this will be a new journey for her. For anyone who gets inspired by her story, all you have to do is check out her Kickstarter page to see how she has combined personal experience with social media (video testimonial) along with donation incentives. This is the future of crowdfunding (a collective effort for people who pool their resources to fund an initiative). And while the idea of crowdfunding is very exciting, never forget the one simple reason why this is a success story.

"The more you work for something, the more you get out of it. And the more you you want something, the more you're willing to work for it," she said. For more information about her adventure visit: www.tickettoridebook.com