Before I wrote my first book, a comedic novel called My Life at the Bottom of the Food Chain, I attended a local author event. It was the kind of gathering where you chat with fellow writers, share inspiration, and talk craft. When I told one woman I was writing a novel for young readers, she asked if I had children. When I said no, she looked confused, puzzled at how I could write about kids without having one myself. For her, parenting was an essential part of her writing process.
I told her, “I can write about being a boy because I was a boy once.”
The Assumptions We Carry
That moment stuck with me, not because it discouraged me, but because it made me more certain of what I believe: my life experience qualifies me to write. Everyone has the right to be a storyteller. Everyone has a perspective worth sharing.
If we followed the logic that says we must live every aspect of a story to write it, then no one could ever write about dragons, or time travel, or even childhood trauma—because those experiences are deeply personal, and sometimes, imagined.
Writing from Emotional Truth
I don’t claim the expertise of an educator or the authority of a parent. What I offer instead is the perspective of someone who was once a child—someone who remembers what it was like to feel anxious, to question their friendships, to fear rejection or ridicule. That emotional memory still lives in me. It informs everything I write.
As a child, I often dealt with low self-esteem—feelings that, in hindsight, weren’t grounded in reality but were still very real to me at the time. Those memories help me create characters who feel real to readers because they come from a place of lived emotional truth.
What I Hope Readers Take Away
More than anything, I hope my books give readers a sense of perspective about who they are and who they can become. They can learn to trust their judgment, especially when it comes to how they should be treated. That they know they deserve respect, kindness, and the space to grow into the best version of themselves.
No young person should live in fear.
And no writer should be afraid to tell a story that needs to be told, just because someone else says they’re not qualified.