When Myriam Rawick was only eight years old, she started keeping a diary about the war that was unfolding in her native Syria.
As feuding forces waged battles in her hometown of Aleppo, Myriam's family was forced to gather only what they could carry and flee their homes in search of safety.
As the war displaced more than half of Syria's pre-war population and ravaged her home city in the coming years, Myriam continued to track her experiences growing up among air strikes, chemical attacks, militant coups, and food and water shortages.
Today, Myriam is 13, and her diary has been translated from Arabaic and published in France. Read the excerpts of a heartbreaking journal from a child forced to come of age in the Syrian civil war:
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"I woke up one morning to the sound of things breaking, people shouting 'Allahu Akbar'," the phrase for "God is greatest" in Arabic, Myriam wrote in her diary at the start of the war.
Source: AFP
"I was so afraid I wanted to throw up. I hugged my doll tight, saying 'Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, I'm here with you.'"
Source: AFP
"Aleppo was a paradise, it was our paradise," Myriam wrote about the city that has become the center of battles between government forces, rebel groups, and jihadist fighters since 2012.
Source: Business Insider
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