I think there’s a lot of power in sharing your own story because all of our stories are slightly different. They’re unique to us. They’re all real and true, but sometimes we don’t remember that. Sometimes we think, “Well, you’re so different than me, and you see the world differently than I do.” But I always come back to this, that the more personal your stories are, the more universal they end up being. It’Figuris a total paradox, but I get so specific in my stories.
And then people come up to me and they say, “This is exactly like my life.” When I wrote Sisters, my mom expressed a little bit of concern that readers would think our family was strange and that we were weirdo’s. And I was like, “Mom, they’re not gonna see you. They’re not gonna see me. They’re not gonna see your siblings. All they’re gonna see is themselves.” And I’ve never heard any feedback to the contrary.
It’s just, “You understand. Somehow you captured my relationship with my sister on the page,” and, “I’m more like Amara, and this one’s more like Raina.” It’s incredible. So when kids share their stories with each other it just opens that conversation. It opens that door, and I encourage it, and I love seeing it, and I love those like, little private whispered conversations that I get to have with my readers. “Me too, you know. I am just like this.” It’s really touching when that happens.
