NEW SCOTLAND — Makayla-Courtney McGeeney set out from Voorheesville to become a writer. Now, in her senior year of college, she has published her first book.

McGeeney’s “Growing UPstate” combines diary entries, personal observations, and posts from her blog, We’re Just Here Pretending!

“It was something I wanted to do for myself,” McGeeney told The Enterprise. The book, from Outskirts Press, is 56 pages long.

“I always wanted to write a book,” she said. “I kind of just learned along the way. I think it was positive,” she said of the experience of self-publishing.

Her book starts with a blog post she wrote about growing up after surviving the loss of her father when she was 10. She lived in Voorheesville, and writes about being in a small-town environment. While she did not compose her book with a specific audience in mind, she said that it may speak to young high school students.

“I hear a lot of stories, kids say they can’t take it anymore. It hurts me,” McGeeney said. “I used writing as my outlet for that. There are ways you can deal with it, temporarily.”

She said that writing helped her manage uncomfortable events. As a young person, for example, she could not control having her mom’s boyfriend at the house, but she could write to “escape” the situation, she said.

McGeeney said she is not sure she will write another book.

“I don’t want to narrow myself down,” she said. She previously served a 10-week internship at a local newspaper, and she is the editor of the newspaper at her school, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

She also writes a health column for the school paper, following her personal interest in fitness and nutrition; at home in the Capital Region, McGeeney works at a local gym.

“Seeing how fitness classes motivated people, motivated me,” she said.

McGeeney would like to try magazine and freelance writing, also, she said.

“I just want to write,” she said.

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“Growing UPstate” is available from Amazon.com for $11.95, or $5 for an electronic version.