A 19 year old filmmaker started her already impressive career at the age of 14 after her father passed away.

Sychelle-Kristina Yanda, from Watford, self-published her first book at 16 years old, with the help of MP Richard Harrington.

Sychelle, who went to Westfield Academy before studying journalism at West Herts College and then Coventry University, explains: “My dad passed away in 2009, when I was in year seven, and ever since I struggled so much with expressing myself.

“I'm grateful for the creative industry because without it, I would be unable to express myself through my crafts. I wrote and published my first book when I was 16.

“I had no idea how getting published works so I got in touch with my MP, Richard Harrington for some help. He replied via email and told me about Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. I looked into it and three to four months later, my first book was self-published.”

Not long after this, it struck Sychelle that people do not read as much as they once did, and so she decided to make a visual representation of the book.

She wrote and directed the piece herself and it was a great success. Between Lovers was entered into different film festivals and was a semi-finalist for The Hollywood Film Festival and a finalist for the international Young Filmmakers award.

It was screened at the British Film Institute (BFI) and Sychelle was also featured in the British Blacklist at 17, which showcases talent from African Caribbean British creative professionals each year.

“I realised that y target audience do not read as much as I do. I needed them to know the story one way or another. I wanted my script to be given to theatres at first but they were not getting back to me. So I decided that a film was best at this stage.

“The process involved re-writing, more reading (to improve my story) and heavy promotion.”

Her second film, University Girls, was inspired by a guest on her uni radio show After Dark. A student escort came on to talk about the struggles of being at university without a part time job and struggling with money.

She says: “The show inspired me so much that I went away to do deeper research on student escorting and why people do this. I then thought not only was this a good story (which I submitted for my journalism module) but when properly expanded, it would make a great film.

“It explored sugar daddies and university girls. It was screened at the BFI and is currently at various festivals.”

Sychelle is currently working on her third release, which will become a series, being screen at the BFI on August 31.

“The series is about being trapped and looks at a female that is stuck in a relationship with a psychopath,” she tells me. “The series is called #Goalz, which is written and directed by me. I chose this name because people are quick to idolise other people's relationships without knowing or understanding what is really happening in their relationship.”

Sychelle also self-published another book earlier this year called Reflection of Me, written especially for those in the LGBT community. It looks at the psychological obsession a mother has over girls and how she copes when she gives birth to a boy.

All these achievements at such a young age are almost hard to believe, and Sychelle agrees: “Sometimes it's unbelievable but I'm not where I want to be in life just yet so I'm still working hard.

“I am working on opening my own production company specialising in content creating, filming, editing and producing. Long term, we will provide not only the crew but also the talent.

“YCT (Yanda Created This) will have high end actors that will work with the company and clients to produce ideas. I want to create, create, create!”

I wondered if she had any words of advice for aspiring writers or film makers and Sychelle says to me: “Don't give up. Although you may feel that no one is supporting you as much, sales may not go as planned, or not as many people turn up to your screening - think of what you can of better next time rather than why it went wrong.

“Stay positive and never lose sight. You know exactly what you're trying to do, so do it. Do not let anything or anyone stop you.”