Every day for two years a German teenager sat in isolation inside a tiny room, crafting the words that would change the world.
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These were words never intended to be read widely.
By the author's own admission they were the "musings of a 13-year-old school girl", that "later on neither I nor anyone else will be interested in".
"Oh well," she wrote on June 20, 1942, "It doesn't matter. I feel like writing."
And thank God she did. For had it not been for those words penned inside a small leather-bound diary, the name Anne Frank would never have been uncovered and the world would be much poorer for it.
The room in which she lived, just 42 square metres, was home to eight people hiding from a powerful enemy.
But fear does not punctuate this young author's tale. She describes an ordinary account of the day-to-day life that unfolded around her in Holland.
She writes of her experiences, her frustrations, her desires. What has often struck readers is just how ordinary Anne's world appears, despite the extraordinary circumstances of her situation.
Beyond the daily routine she wrote about her vision for the world when, eventually, the isolation would end.
"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world," she declared on March 26, 1944.
Though she did not survive the war, dying in February 1945, weeks before the liberation of Bergen-Belsen Prison Camp, her simple words helped shape the world after her death.
The 'uninteresting musings of a 13-year-old girl' helped the world grieve and heal from an event that touched almost every life on the planet at the time.
They continue to bring comfort and a sense of normality to survivors beyond Anne's short life and the era her experience epitomised.
In 1947 the diary was published. Seven years later it became a play. Actors travelled the world telling the story of Anne Frank. One of the first countries to bring the drama to its theatres was Germany.
As the story goes, after a matinee performance in a small German town as the curtain lowered, the crowd sat silent. Until a woman's voice was heard, between sobs, whispering: "Oh my God, we killed them."
The horrors of World War II had been unknown to much of the world - including the German people - until the 'musings' of one teenage girl opened their eyes.
Her diary is still read across the globe in a multitude of languages. It continues to shape the world with each new generation that reads between its covers.
And it all started from the mind of one girl living in isolation. Now, finding ourselves in our own COVID-19 isolation, Anne's words find new resonance.
While we may feel the panic of the pandemic as it keeps us indoors, it is important to remember that, unlike Anne, we are not stuck in hiding. We are safe at home. How fortunate we are to live with just a fraction of her peril.
One day, this global health crisis will become a distant memory. As with the World Wars, there will come a time when not one person alive remembers these events.
But the words we write today will shape history. If we do not commit them to paper, the lessons we learn, the experiences we share, will be forgotten.
Beyond all else, Anne's short life is a reminder that we are never too young, or too unqualified, to change the world.
Anne's father, Otto Frank, had his late daughter's diary published when he alone returned from the concentration camp because he wanted to show the world the power of one ordinary girl's memories.
History is filled with brave young writers who explored world events from their innocent eyes. We have the chance to join them.
Whether you're a parent, a child, or a woman in her mid-20s living alone a long way from home and feeling the sting of this isolation like I am: now is the time to pick up the pen. Start writing what you see, what you feel and what you want from the world post-pandemic.
Your words can make a difference. Even if they are never read by another, the simple act of writing will bring healing.
As Anne wrote in one of her final entries, on April 4, 1944: "I can shake off everything as I write, my sorrows disappear and my courage is reborn."
Emma Horn is a reporter with The Daily Advertiser.