How do you start an introductory paragraph for an autobiography, especially if you're young?

My best guess is that you're aiming to write not your entire autobiography, but rather an autobiographical story: that is, a focused story about something that happened to you in your own life. But whether that's the case or not, the ideas below may be of help, especially if you are still a kid or a teenager. Remember, even though you're young, you've still experienced an interesting, unique childhood that's worth writing about!

1. A good strategy is to start your first paragraph with a quick anecdote (a short, interesting story) that helps show readers what kind of person you are, or what kind of person you used to be. That is, just jump right into a description of something specific that happened to you, something that was funny, or sad, or surprising.

For example: "I once got in trouble with my parents for introducing myself to people as 'Lisa.' I was really tired of my weird real name, 'Liesl,' and I was especially tired of answering questions like 'Uh, how do you spell that?'"

2. Another strategy is to start describing something important you recently realized about life, or about a big idea like friendship, family, love, school, etc.

Example: "It took me way too long to realize that it's much more exciting to watch people open presents from you than it is to open your own presents."

3. Of course, you can also blend an anecdote with a realization. Example: "Last year in school when I didn't have my homework to turn in, and Mrs. Tarkington was standing over me with her eyebrows all wrinkled up in confusion because I always have my homework, I was very surprised to realize that I was neither jailed nor expelled nor disowned by my family as a result of this seemingly unforgivable sin."

Finally, here are some sentence patterns you can borrow to start your introduction paragraph:

A. "By the time I was (a certain age), I had realized _____."

B. "If you think that (something is true), you're in for a shock because _____."

C. "(A specific person in my life) once taught me something amazing: that _____."

D. "My life changed forever on the day that _____."

E. "For as long as I live, I will never forget how _____."

For more ideas, head to the biography section of your school's library, and open to the first page of any of the autobiographies to see how these published writers began their own stories. You can borrow their strategies—not copy what they say exactly, but notice how they begin and try to do a similar thing.