DOUGLAS, Mass. — When the COVID-19 pandemic cut Jenna Elliott off from the outside world, the then-high school junior experienced a feeling of helplessness. She was in a vise and needed an escape.

“My life became contained within the four walls of my house,” Elliott said.

To cope, the 2021 graduate and valedictorian of Douglas High School looked for a distraction. She turned inward and lost herself in books.

During her isolated reading binge, Elliott found herself immersed in the young adult novel “Dry” by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman. The story follows a group of teens dealing with the effect of a water crisis in California over the course of six days. Elliott was captivated with how the protagonist, teenager Alyssa Morrow, navigated through a world undergoing a catastrophic drought. As a teenager experiencing the isolation of a catastrophic virus, Elliott identified with the character. The novel inspired her to do more than just sit with a book inside the four walls of her home.

“I was struck by the novel,” she said. “It was powerful. It moved and inspired me to learn more about the struggles of water insecurity and drought.”

Elliott then came up with the idea to create a website focused on activism and awareness to serve as a resource.

“Perhaps it would allow people to learn more about issues that were important to them,” she said. “Maybe they could become passionate about a certain cause,” like not having water.

The result was 7 Billion Words, a website that combined her love of reading and her passion for positive change. The motto is “changing the world, one word at a time.” Elliott writes book reviews for the site in a variety of categories, genres and topics with the goal of providing helpful information to the largest possible audience. She even interviews different authors.

The 7 Billion Words website.


When it came time to name the website, Elliott had a lot to consider.

“I love how literature can connect diverse groups of people, and I wanted the name of my website to capture the essence of that idea somehow,” she said.

And so, she decided on 7 Billion Words, referencing the approximate human population on the planet.

“It’s actually nearly 8 billion people now,” she admits, “so I might need to change the name.”

Elliott views such a website as a way of overcoming her own feelings of powerlessness caused by the pandemic.

“In a small way, I would be doing my part to help to make this world a little bit better.”

Elliott, who has earned a full scholarship to attend Princeton in the fall, said she hopes her reviews connect readers to material that can inspire them to help make the world a better place. But she also wants the website to be about self-awareness, encouraging her readers to understand their place in the world and how they can make it better.

“On the most basic level, I want to help people find books that they love and books they are passionate about,” she said. “I think it’s so important to include an element of self-reflection in the reading process though, so I really aspire to help readers focus on that bigger picture, allowing the literature that they consume to serve as a means of personal reflection. It is my hope that by pointing out the ways books can relate to certain causes my readers will come to a greater understanding of what it is that they are passionate about and then transform that understanding into positive change.”

Elliott’s love of reading started around first and second grade when she got her first “Percy Jackson” book as a gift from her aunt.

“It was a little above my reading level, so my mother agreed that she’d read me the first ‘Percy Jackson’ book. I fell in love with it,” she said.

Even though the character of Percy Jackson is a demigod, Elliott says, “his humanity is authentic. He makes mistakes, but he is loyal. As a young adult reader, I can just relate to him because of his flaws. The series is probably responsible for the passion I have for reading.”

Elliott’s main focus for the website was initially to focus her reviews toward a young adult audience. However, as time went on, her range of material and her targeted audience expanded.

“I think that as a teen, I originally expected to have an audience that was mostly of the same age as me,” she said. “But I have found that my website really does reach a large range of people. As the site has evolved, I have tried to expand the range of book reviews more accessible to a diverse variety of people and age groups.”

As an Ivy League student at Princeton in the fall, Elliott’s concentration of study is still up in the air. She is interested in psychology, sociology, neuroscience and political science. She also hopes to take classes in creative writing.

“At the very least, writing will remain a hobby of mine because I simply don’t think I would be myself without it,” she said.

Elliott’s other passions include photography, travel and community service. As she prepares for the next chapter of her life, her book reviews will continue.

“I have loved stories for as long as I can remember, and I am always looking for a way to spread this love,” she said. “I am working toward embodying my true authentic voice in my reviews… It is okay to make mistakes. My personal motto at the moment is ‘progress, not perfection.’ By letting our passions guide our goals and aspirations, we can become something extraordinary.”

To read Elliott’s reviews and more, visit her website at 7BillionWords.com.