A NEWPORT author has been named one of the world’s most influential teenagers by a major US news magazine.

Time magazine has placed Beth Reeks, author of The Kissing Booth, in a list of 16 influential teens of the year, alongside Pakistani Taliban-survivor Malala Yousafzai and Justin Bieber.

The publication, which ranks the Gwent 18-year-old at number 13, details how she used a story-sharing site to release the novel, leading to a three-book deal with publishers Random House.

Rogerstone’s Beth, who has the pen-name Beth Reekles, said it was all “pretty crazy”

and said she had knocked all the doors of her university flat when she saw the list.

“I was texting everyone to tell them,” she said. “It’s such an amazing thing to happen.”

The Exeter University student said it was incredible to be listed alongside 16-year-old Malala Yousafzai – who is now at school in Birmingham after the Taliban shot her in the head as she was on her way back from school in Pakistan.

“I think my achievements don’t come near her,” she said. “But I am really humbled.”

Ms Reeks was last night attending the Women of the Future awards at the London Marriott in Grosvenor Square, where she has been nominated in the Young Star awards.

The author, who is in her first year at university, has started working on her first book under the Random House contract – a teen romance with a working title of Out of Tune.

Ms Reeks was snapped up when she was 17 after her story The Kissing Booth attracted more than 40,000 comments on the web. One of the chapters of her book had one million reads alone.

The teenager was studying for A-levels in physics, maths, French and Spanish at the time, and wrote the stories in her bedroom.

The Kissing Booth, a romance starring pretty, popular, but never-been-kissed Elle Evans, and super cool player Noah Flynn, went on to be published last April. A film deal has also been optioned by Random House Children’s Screen Entertainment.

The Time list is topped by 17-year-old Kiwi singer Lorde, while others include golfer Lydia Ko and Barack Obama’s daughter Malia.