71-Year-Old Blogger and Author Jean Janki Samaroo Proves Age is Nothing But a Number
photos courtesy of Jean Janki Samaroo
written by Tiara Jade
For self-published author Jean Janki Samaroo, age was no obstacle in making her dreams come true.
As Samaroo was approaching her 70th birthday, she began to think about how she wanted to commemorate the milestone. She decided she didn’t want a party or fancy event. For this birthday she wanted to give herself a gift that was personal and meaningful —the publishing of her first book.
Samaroo is a native of Guyana and her love of literature started early on. Her first job as a teenager was working in Guyana’s Georgetown Public Library in the children’s department. It was there that Samaroo discovered her interest in children’s literature and first considered the idea of writing her own story one day.
[Additional Read: 5-Year-Old Author Coryn Clark on Her Writing Journey]
After immigrating to Toronto, Canada, Samaroo continued to surround herself with books. She studied Library Arts at Ryerson University and worked at multiple libraries including the Lawson Memorial Library at University of Western Ontario and School of Business Library at the University of Toronto. Samaroo also did an enormous amount of volunteer work in the community such as teaching English to refugees and serving lunch at a local Seniors Centre.
As a young girl, she enjoyed writing. As time went on, she took on the responsibilities of work and motherhood, no longer focusing on writing. Samaroo comes from a family of writers. Her father who, among other achievements, wrote a short story that was published in the book “They Came in Ships.” Her brother is an avid writer and blogger. Samaroo was inspired by her brother’s blog and wanted to start her own blogging journey. With his help, she launched her blog “Late Blooms.”
The blog covers an array of topics including art, photography, and senior lifestyle. Over the years she's written over 200 posts. Samaroo was surprised and inspired by the traffic her blog brought in from all over the world. She wanted to inspire others who were entering a more mature stage of their lives. To do this she decided to bring “Late Blooms” to life in the form of a book.
Samaroo’s work focuses on uplifting others and inspiring them to embrace senior lifestyle. Her feature work "Project 70," is where she shares her posts on coming into senior-hood and maturing life stages. As a result of her love of photos and different art forms, her book is chock-full of both. Both her photography and art projects were an integral part of her blog and book. She also added a section of inspirational quotes she felt readers would enjoy. Samaroo got to explore the actual publishing process. She put the book together herself and even found printers. Her initial hope was to have the book done by Christmas. With the help of a book designer, Samaroo released her first self published book, “Late Blooms: Inspiration For Seniors” just a few months short of her 71st birthday.
But Samaroo didn’t stop there. In 2019, after participating in a course called “Writing for Young Readers: Opening the Treasure Chest,” she was inspired to produce her second book “Making New Friends.”
Samaroo first dreamed of writing a children’s story as a teen and now her dream has become a reality. For “Making New Friends,” she got to experience working with an illustrator to bring her story to life. The story follows two little mice named Jake and Buddy who are feeling particularly lonely one day and the old routine is just not enough. Jake comes up with a brilliant idea about how they could escape to the cottage with their human family. The story explores themes of loneliness, friendship, and acceptance of those who are different.
Samaroo’s journey to authorship is non-traditional. She proves that age should never stop us from pursuing our dreams —dreams that can become reality at any stage in life. When asked what advice she’d give to womxn looking to pursue careers in writing Samaroo said:
"If the creative writing spark comes alive in you, don’t ignore it. I would say that you need to decide what kind of stories you want to write (genre) and who you want to write them for (audience). Find out all you can about your subject. If your subject is something you know about and enjoy, your writing journey can be fun. Nothing will appear on the page unless you show up. Writing takes discipline. You have to sit, focus, write, rewrite, rethink, reconstruct — one word at a time. The project can’t be rushed. Fine-tuning and refining your writing takes time. The main thing is not to give up! Keep writing and look for stories wherever you go. There are many stories out there waiting to be told."
Samaroo believes womxn should unabashedly go after their dreams regardless of race, religion, or conservative cultural norms. We shouldn’t let age, culture, or patriarchy get in the way. Goals can be realized at any stage in our lives. Warren Buffet became a millionaire at 56 years old. Kamala Harris married the love of her life at the age of 49. And the final product in both these instances was worth the wait!
In the future, Samaroo hopes to write more and explore her Guyanese culture in an upcoming project. To learn more about the author and her work visit Amazon.com.
