Venezuelan author Ariana Godoy talks latest book-to-screen adaptation, Sigue mi Voz (Follow my Voice), romance writing and nurturing a community of passionate readers.
Ariana Godoy set the foundations for her full-time writing career without even realizing it. In 2009, Godoy was looking for a way to share the material she wrote in her spare time. At that time, Wattpad was primarily a platform for divulging self-written stories and finding like-minded communities. The author relied on a close friend for internet access to upload her material on the website.
Despite the hurdles, Godoy continued to post consistently—the creative outlet that writing provided was a reprieve from work. Within two years, she had already hit one million reads. Soon, Godoy climbed up the ranks of the platform’s top-performing authors, amassing millions of reads on her original works and birthing true literary phenomena.
Eventually, publishers approached her. What had originally been a mode of expression transformed into physical novels and film adaptations. The Hermanos Hidalgo trilogy, lead by the best-selling A través de mi ventana, inspired a Netflix film saga while Sigue mi voz hit the screen through Prime Video in January.
Now, the Venezuelan author is on the cusp of adding a tenth digit to her total reader count.
Since Godoy started her publishing journey, the industry has undergone drastic development.
Wattpad, once regarded as a community for fan creation, has become a thriving piece of the creative ecosystem. The website, acquired by the South Korean Naver in 2022, has also developed WEBTOON Productions, in charge of adapting successful webnovels into TV series and movies.
Back when Godoy started writing, the publishing landscape was vastly different. She couldn’t afford to pitch her writing to traditional publishers. Printing and shipping a manuscript from Venezuela was both complicated and expensive. Rather than seeking a publishing house that might take her work, Godoy recognized the potential of her work and nurtured the growing community she found on Wattpad.
As she tells No Manners Magazine, today, the rise of social media marketing and self-publishing, combined with Wattpad’s global reach, has opened new doors for rising authors. “This change has created a bridge that wasn’t there before,” Godoy reflects. “Social media has created a bridge for all authors to find their home.”
Godoy’s widely successful A través de mi ventana is a prime example of the combined power of engaged online audiences and alternative publishing channels. In 2022, the novel was adapted by Netflix to enthusiastic reception. The story, which follows Raquel and Ares as they navigate the emotional hurdles of opening up in a relationship, topped the Netflix Global Top 10 non-English titles list with more than 34 million views within its first week. The success led to two more movies to follow in the series.
Godoy’s latest book-to-film adaptation explores love, healing and mental health.
In 2022, Wattpad WEBTOON Productions picked Godoy’s e-book Sigue mi voz (Follow My Voice), which has garnered more than 38 million reads on Wattpad. The film was theatrically released in Spain in September 2025 before becoming available for streaming on Prime Video in January 2026.
Godoy describes Sigue mi voz as her most intimate work to date. The story follows high school student and protagonist Klara (Berta Castañé) as she navigates a mental health crisis that left her homebound for over two months. “In the past, when I was going through it, I would have liked to be able to pick up a book and be like, ‘Oh, so this is a panic attack, this is anxiety,’” Godoy shares. “I want to get this all out to see if there are more people out there that might be going through the same thing, so they don’t feel alone.”
When the story was picked up for its film adaptation, Godoy was pleasantly surprised that one of her most wholesome narratives would get more recognition.
Her priorities included ensuring her characters were well taken care of. For Kang, the story’s male protagonist, this meant a long-winded search for a Spanish-speaking Korean actor that fit the role.
“When I was writing Sigue mi voz, I got a little backlash. I was writing the novel in 2016 […] and Kang showed up, so many people were like, ‘Oh he’s Korean,’” Godoy reflects. “I was like, ‘Yes, you know Korean people exist, right? Venezuelans, Argentinians, not everybody is white. And, you know, they grew to love him.”
Jaewoo Yang, the Korean footballer based in Spain who was chosen for the role, subsequently became the first-ever Korean lead actor in a Spanish film. “The credit is all for the production company, because they spent months looking,” Godoy says. “It was really important for me that they stayed true to the characters that I wrote.”
RELATED STORY
Introducing the NMM Directory: 21 People Poised for Great Achievement in 2026
Over a decade into her writing career, Ariana Godoy has explored a variety of themes in the romance genre. From stories of dark mystery to high school puppy love, Godoy’s repertoire includes options for a range of readers.
Despite finishing her tenth book in 2025, Godoy hopes to finish another novel in 2026. Completing a manuscript is a hefty task in and of itself, but Godoy hopes to achieve it while balancing the responsibilities of motherhood. As her son approaches his first birthday, Godoy is bringing her life lessons into his upbringing. “My second resolution is to be strong when my child goes to his first classes,” she says, smiling. “I want to be a strong mother. But a mother who allows feelings!”
Through an unconventional start and unrelenting perseverance, Godoy has become one of Wattpad’s most popular authors. By the time this interview was conducted, Godoy had surpassed 900 million reads across all of her work on Wattpad. “I didn’t start writing for recognition or anything,” she reflects. “I just wanted people to read what I was writing.”
Needless to say, she realized her aspirations.
In the process of growing her readership, Godoy has nurtured a community of passionate readers who find inspiration and friendship through her work. Online interactions translate to heartwarming in-person exchanges at live events in demonstrations of solidarity unique to tight-knit fandoms.
At a time when romance continues to be problematically discredited as immature women’s literature, Godoy dismantles the stigma against the predominantly female interest in this literary genre. “I feel like every story needs to be told, no matter the genre,” she explains. “And yes, we like reading romance and getting into it, because have you seen the world right now? It’s a fair escape nowadays.”
With the major milestone of 1 billion cumulative reads on the horizon, I asked Godoy how she plans to celebrate the legacy she has constructed. After all, Godoy’s is not just an inspiring story about a hopeful writer from Venezuela—her sustained success is a testament to the power of community and the growth of the romance genre in literature, both catalysts for industry changes in favor of unconventional paths.
“I will probably have a little party for myself and, you know, congratulate the Ariana that had two jobs and was writing on the side, publishing chapters one after the other,” she says. “I’ll tell her that she did well, and that it is going to pay off eventually. ‘You’re going to work hard for 10 years, but it’s going to pay off eventually.’”
