Mentors Help 'Young Storytellers' Bring Their Own Tales To Life

NORTH HOLLYWOOD (CBSLA.com) — Aaliyah Mason is a fifth-grader at Rio Vista Elementary School in North Hollywood with a big imagination.

Mason's ideas are now coming to life and even being performed on stage thanks to the Young Storytellers foundation.

"My story is about a girl who really wants to go to Maui in a dance competition," said Mason.

The unique program pairs kids like Mason with a one-on-one mentor, who guides them through the process of writing their own five-page screenplay.

For the second year in a row, 10 Rio Vista fifth-graders are being mentored by CBS Entertainment employees involved in the company's diversity outreach.

"The program is really to get kids excited about writing," says mentor Pilar Alvarez. "It's a time when they're able to write about whatever they want to write about."

Once the stories are written, the young writers go through the same process as their mentors: auditioning professional actors to perform their screenplays in front of their peers.

The nonprofit group says this program not only teaches kids the fundamentals of writing, but it's a big confidence booster, too.

And for one little scribe, learning the art of storytelling now could lead to a much larger tale in the future.

"Possibly I want to be a screenwriter," said fifth-grader Artur Martirosyan. "It's very good."