When people come to me for writing advice, I tell them this: write something no one else can write.

Do a hard and close read through your piece. What makes your writing unapologetically yours? What can you do without? Magnify what's yours and minimize what isn't.

It can be easy to feel like you need to sell out while writing on the Internet. Offer the same generic advice you've seen offered to you when you've been scrolling through Google, because you know what might sell or what might be safe to write about.

Safe is boring. Generic is boring. You might be scared of taking risks and putting a lot of yourself out there when you're writing, and be careful about your political or religious opinions at risk of being divisive. You want to be the perfect writer, someone people across all parts of the spectrum can relate to, someone every person reading can relate to.

First off, if there were a perfect writer, that writer would be boring. Do not skirt away from controversial or divisive content. If you write any way like me, you won't completely enunciate how you feel about something until you start writing about it -- so write about divisive or controversial topics from abortion, gun control, gender identity, and foreign policy.

In your writing, be you and be unapologetically you. Write about your personal experiences you feel people won't care about. Why? Because your personal experiences are yours and nobody else's. Your personal experiences might not be able to sell, but would you rather put an article out there about "7 Ways To Be More Productive" or would you rather have people read about the experiences that shaped your relationship with a sibling or parent, or the experiences that changed the way you saw yourself?

Generic self-development advice has its place. All of us want to improve and get better in our emotional balance, actions, and behaviors. But generic pieces tell rather than show, which I have been guilty of doing, and if you're going to write an excellent piece, show why people should believe you. Show all of your journey -- the mistakes you made as well as the triumphs you had.

You might be thinking, "what if I'm a boring person?" I can assure you that if you sought out writing in the first place, you are not a boring person. There are parts of you that are unexplored and unexpressed in your writing. Be vulnerable and share your personal experiences, and don't tie them to whatever stats or results might come of them.

I often write about my experiences in the classroom, and tell stories of experiences that struck out that were worth writing about. These experiences are often embarrassing: they express how naive I was and what I learned in the process, and show my green ears as a new teacher. For example, I wrote about the time a kid put me in a headlock, or the time a kid stole my phone and I had to pursue further action, or how, as an Asian-American, my kids perceive me as white.

I'm sure the same things have happened to other people and teachers. But my experiences are unique because I perceive them in my own unique way, and it is writing that allows me to show that I'm a human being, not a robot that churns out insight and advice. They weren't my most successful articles, but they were pieces I was more proud of than anything because I felt like they were unapologetically mine.

No one else could have written these pieces. Only I could, given my own experiences and writing style. They were articles I was the proudest to attach my name to.

What makes your writing unique? What makes your writing unapologetically yours?

Embrace it. Write something no one else can write.