17-year-old Solli Raphael's hard work has paid off, with releasing a new children's book

It's a fair assessment, given the Border teenager, at just 17, is already an award-winning author.

He started about as young as anyone could, penning his first book at seven and getting the first of his three books into print at 13.

Solli has now made a concerted effort to take his work to another level, which will be released in bookstores Tuesday

He is on a mission to address the stigma surrounding the undercurrent of racism in society.

His latest work, 29 Things You Didn't Know About Me, is part of a series called "Our Stories" that aims to showcase Australia's multi-cultural and multi-faith society in a fun, age-appropriate positive light.

Aimed at a primary school-aged audience, the series is edited by prominent author and anti-racism advocate Randa Abdel-Fattah, who will launch Solli's book.

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The book takes you through a tale of friendship and the following ups and downs.

Solli's creative expression way of working at seven was to simply try to write different worlds, something that came easy to him because of his passion for words. At age

At age nine, he discovered poetry and then three years later won the national Australian Poetry Slam in an all-adult competition.

An in-demand speaker, Solli has worked with Fortune 500 companies and community businesses alike to deliver his motivation for a future of equality, transparency, and sustainability.

He is also the founder of World of Poetry, which is a collective designed to amplify the voices of poets and the environmental charity Earth Enablers.

"I always loved writing on the school holidays and weekends, and to see my own work come to life has been an incredible journey," he said.

"To be an author and use that platform of writing to help people, help my age group and help my peers and bigger issues and with global issues, it's inspirational and empowering that my passion is something I can do on a daily basis and to help people."

His new book, published by Pan Macmillan Australia, and is illustrated by fellow Melbourne-based creative Olana Janfa, a self-taught Ethiopian-Norwegian artist is out Tuesday

"I'm really excited to launch the book, and I'm going to visit as many book shops as I can to do some book signing over the next couple of weeks."

For more information on Solli's work, visit his website at https://www.solliraphael.com

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