Having published her first poetry collection as a freshman, Cantor described her book “Anything with a Pulse” as her “emotional outlet,” lacking a specific overarching theme when writing. The title refers to how she wrote “anything under the sun.”

“I just kind of wrote how I felt all the time,” Cantor said. “Writing has always been just a way to help me process things in life.”

With her father’s guidance during the technical process, Cantor self-published her book on Amazon, working with formatters and cover artists.

Currently, Cantor is working on a romance novel that she plans to publish by the end of summer, exploring an “exaggerated story of (her) life” as a teenage girl, asserting that her goal is to have her younger audience relate to the narrative. 

“I have definitely matured in my writing since publishing it (Anything with a Pulse), but it’s still something that I appreciate deeply in my heart, and I’m thankful to myself for doing it,” Cantor said.

Inspired by her environmental conservation interests, Kanter wrote and illustrated a children’s book titled “Finn and Jelly: The Pollution Problem.”

Kanter began working on her book during her junior year in 2024, writing and illustrating the book for most of her Thanksgiving Break. In February 2025, she published the book on Amazon. To illustrate her visuals, Kanter had to “learn from scratch” to draw digitally, including teaching herself how to use the iPad illustration program Procreate and pulling inspiration from American cartoonist Dr. Seuss. 

“I kind of took that whimsical nature and tried to put that in mind,” Kanter said. “But during my writing process, that was all me.”

The narrative follows two best friends, a fish and a jellyfish. One day, the jellyfish, Jelly, gets tangled in the trash. Finn, the fish, has to go and rescue Jelly, conveying a message on furthering environmental conservation, sustainability, and recycling.

“I’m really passionate about environmental volunteerism,” Kanter said. “I wanted to do more than just pick up trash and volunteer.”

After becoming the 2025 South Florida Youth Poet Laureate, the winner of a poetry submission competition through the Omari Hardwick bluapple Poetry Network, Masudi had the opportunity to publish a collection of poems titled “With Every Sip.” The collection was organized by the Jason Taylor Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by Jason Taylor that “facilitate(s) the personal growth and empowerment of South Florida’s children,” according to the foundation’s official website. Masudi said her poetry book was written independently and encompasses themes of social justice, and includes metaphors of inanimate objects and concepts that impact her life and feelings. 

“There’s one poem that’s a metaphor about honey,” Masudi said. “Then there are more direct ones where I talk about hypocrisy, but more of a direct attack on that concept. Or maybe, with most of the Muslims you know, terrorism is a big concept, so I have two poems that attack conventional ideals of what terrorism looks like.”

Masudi began working on her book in 2025, though she returned to and workshopped a few of her poems from years before to be included in the final product. 

“With anything I write, the bottom line is that I want to make you think, I want you to question your beliefs, because I feel like a lot of times we’re stuck in our own heads a lot,” Masudi said.