Bela Tristan began writing poetry at the young age of sixteen as a way of coping with her struggles of growing up as a rather introverted and introspective teenager. By the age of seventeen, Tristan started to create a world of her own through the poems she wrote. Although Bela Tristan has always tended to look at the darker side of life, the poetess recognises her work is merely the obscure view of a complex life.