She strongly supported the uprising of 1863, and a few years later married an active participant of the uprising, Laurynas Žymantas. They met on the estate, where they were both employed. For the next twenty years, Žemaitė worked on their farm, raised their children, and battled poverty. In 1883, the family moved to a village near Užventis. She came in contact with Povilas Višinskis who gave her various Lithuanian periodicals ("Aušra", "Varpas", and "Apžvalga"), and encouraged her to write and participate in the national awakening of Lithuania. Her first work, "Autumn Evening" (Lithuanian: "Rudens vakaras"), was published in a calendar in 1895 when she was over 40 years old. Višinskis and Jonas Jablonskis helped her and edited her works and gave her advice, and thus a talent was awakened.