Is AUTHOR wrong in the post ? POST : My friend’s 14 year old daughter hates going to school and lacks motivation to do anything outside of fandom. Now she’s morbidly obese from sitting around all day behind a computer, drinking up to a 2 liter of soda and eating junk all day every day. She only goes back to school when my friend gets a letter in the mail saying enrollment in school is mandatory for kids under the age of 16. But even then, she stops going after a few weeks.

Yesterday, my friend asked if I could take her daughter to an appointment since she had to work. I said sure. The appointment didn’t last very long, so I decided to surprise her daughter by taking her to lunch and a movie. 

At lunch, I asked her daughter what she wants to be when she’s grown. Our conversation went: 

Her: “I’m going to write novels”.

Me: “that’s awesome! I love writing, too! But you should probably know that it’s REALLY hard to make a living as a writer.”

Her: “what do you mean? There’s so many books out there that are so bad I can’t even read them. I think I’ll make a great living with how good my writing is getting.” 

Me: “well yeah, it’s true there’s a lot of authors out there, probably more bad than good. But even the good writers have to work very hard to get their books published, and that’s not even guaranteeing they’ll get a lot of readers.”

Her: “yeah, but I already have a lot of people reading my fanfic. I already have a base. I just have to self-publish novels and they’ll buy them and tell their friend and then I’ll make a lot of money”. 

Me “while I’m sure that’s true, you should still probably stay in school, at least until you get your diploma. Maybe you could go to [local community college] and major in English or writing?”

Her: “but why go to school to learn how to write when I’m already really good at it?”

I gave up and said “I don’t think that’s how it really works, but what do I know.” And the conversation turned to her latest fanfic she’s writing. 

Well last night my friend called me in a rage. “You CRUSHED her dreams of being a writer! She’s been crying all night because she’s questioning herself now. How DARE you go behind my back and tell her she’s wasting her time trying to be a writer”. 

I told her I never said she was wasting her time, just that it’s unrealistic thinking she’s going to become a successful author because a lot of people read her fanfictions. My friend said “she is MY daughter and her education is MINE and HERS business. If she wants to believe she’s going to be a writer, let her believe that until she’s forced to grow up and get a job like we all have to”. 

I said “but don’t you think that allowing her to just sit around and only do things when she feels comfortable will give her a bad work/school ethic like us?” All she said was “we get by just fine and even if we don’t that’s not your business. Now I have to go console my heartbroken daughter.” And she hung up.

AITA? Should I have just not said anything? I’m really torn up about this. :(
