Growing up, I didn’t always feel like I fit neatly into the world around me.
I have ADHD, and for a long time I didn’t understand that some of the things that made life harder for me were also simply parts of the way my brain worked. I could feel things deeply. My mind could move a mile a minute. Things that seemed easy for other people could sometimes feel incredibly difficult for me.
And when you’re a child, being different can very easily start to feel like being wrong.
As I grew older, I learned something I wish every child could understand much earlier:
You do not have to become less of yourself to deserve a place in this world.
Becoming a mother made that message even more important to me.
I’ve watched my children grow into their own completely unique people. I’ve seen their strengths, their struggles, their personalities, and all the little things that make each of them them. Motherhood has taught me that our job isn’t to mold children into copies of everyone else.
It’s to help them discover who they already are and make sure they know that person is worth loving.
That is at the heart of the stories I write.
Whether a child learns differently, looks different, feels things more deeply, moves through the world differently, or simply hasn’t found where they feel they belong yet, I want my books to leave them with one thought:
There is room for you here. Exactly as you are.
I hope these stories can help children spend a little less time wondering whether they are too much, not enough, or somehow supposed to be someone else.
I want them to grow up knowing:
Different isn’t less.
You don’t have to fit in everywhere to belong somewhere.
Being uniquely yourself is something to be proud of. ❤️