My Story

Helen Keller's well-known autobiography, "The Story of My Life," was written while she was in college and published in 1903. Much less known is her shorter autobiography, "My Story," which she wrote at age 12 especially for a magazine called "Youth's Companion." As Helen Keller explained in her 1903 autobiography: "[Miss Sullivan] persuaded me to write for the 'Youth's Companion' a brief account of my life. I was then twelve years old. As I look back on my struggle to write that little story, it seems to me that I must have had a prophetic vision of the good that would come of the undertaking, or I should surely have failed. I wrote timidly, fearfully, but resolutely, urged on by my teacher." When "Youth's Companion" published the four-part account, Helen Keller was not yet well known, and her story was prefaced by the explanatory remark: "Written wholly without help of any sort by Helen Keller, a deaf and blind girl, twelve years old, and printed without change."