Stories of Wonder, Depth, and Joy for the Outsiders

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You want books you can be yourself in.

After another long day, you get home, close the door against those friend circles you just can’t break into, and open your new book. You may not know where you belong in the world yet, but books give you a taste of it. Bonus points when they give you lots of funny lines to quote for when, in real life, you don’t know what to say.

At first, you laugh and are delighted by this quirky main character. Their struggles mirror your own, and you lean closer to see how they fix it. But as the story goes on, the character is, without warning, magically whole. The story still makes you laugh, but it’s hollow now. As the character skims across the surface to a happy ending, you’re left aching for true acknowledgment. The only character who is allowed to explore your questions is the villain...and their story, needless to say, isn't one that makes you feel very good about yourself.

You set down the book with a sigh. The last book you tried had the opposite problem—it went deep into your struggles. But that’s all the book was: pain and depression. This frustrates you, because shouldn't your fictional worlds be somewhere where you can relax and have fun in? Can your broken pieces only be faced by sacrificing your joy?

You shouldn't have to settle for books that don't go deep enough to meet you. Nor should you settle for books that go so deep they only find the dark.

That's why I write.

Fictional characters kept me company when most of my friends had moved away. (Ask my family, and they’ll tell you how often I quote those characters.) But I wanted something more than surface-level entertainment—I wanted stories and characters that made the reader feel seen. As an Author Conservatory student whose writing received awards in college, I’ve set out to write those stories. Stories that make you both laugh and cry. Stories that see you and your unique joy.