Hello everyone and a huge HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!!!

I don't know how you celebrated the end of 2016, but my night involved me home alone drunk-tweeting Nickelodeon shows - which I'm pretty proud of tbh. New year, same old me. 

2016 is something I think a lot of us are feeling happy to put behind us but no matter what happened, I always think it's important to focus on positives. Don't let all the bad stuff get in your way! 

But now that I've said that, I'm going to immediately go back on it by bringing up something really tragic that happened last year that upset me. If you've noticed our cover this issue, you'll notice that Princess Leia is our cover model this month. This is because I wanted to pay tribute to someone who was such an inspiration to me throughout my life, and I'm sure countless others. 

Carrie Fisher was such an influential voice for so many generations. Not only did she teach young girls that you could be just as badass as guys, Carrie was a huge advocate for mental health and a huge help to fight against the stigma. She was someone I constantly looked up to and absolutely adored, so the loss of both her and her mother was deeply saddening to hear of. General Organa was a character that we could all look up to and Carrie Fisher was an amazing woman who gave so much to us that we could never repay her for. Wattmag sends out it's prayers and thoughts to the Fisher family during this tough time. (And poor little Gary - who we love!) 

So, 2017 is finally here. Now is a time for new goals and resolutions to be set and while it's a common thing for us to quit being healthy or exercising literally within the first week of the new year, this time, we've got some goals we definitely want to keep.

Writing goals is something we can all set and now's a better time than ever! This issue we're going to covering a lot of stuff on that and even sharing our own goals for the new year. 

In regards to WattmagMagazine, I'm aiming to keep us going and make us bigger than ever. I want it to keep inspiring others and providing advice to all those who need it. Writing is a challenge - and I want Wattmag to make it easier for everyone by providing some tips, answering questions and just overall being an awesome support team. We've got an awesome team behind us and also some awesome new members who are joining us this month. I'd like to give a huge warm welcome to: TaliaArcher, TeaceFindlay, Sheena726, believeincats, detectiveofneverland, DBalWrites, lucwatson, amandaJtommo & CCGillings. Please show these guys a heap of love for their first pieces as official Wattmag staff writers! 

I'm also fangirling the heck out because if any of you know me, you know that leigh_ is my favorite Wattpad writer of all time and this issue, I got to interview her!! AAaaaa it was amazing so please be sure to check that out in this issue.

Anyway, there's a heap of awesome stuff going on in this issue, and I'm sure they'll be even better stuff yet to come. I hope you all enjoy this issue.

And to all our readers, I'd like to wish you all the best for the new year. May you get everything you want and have a year full of love and laughs.