I am a wife, mother of four, educator,
and author. I was born & raised in a small town in Alabama, so naturally,
I’m a country girl at heart. I hold a B.S. degree in psychology, and I am
currently pursuing my Masters degree in education. I am a lover of the small
moments and the simple things in life. I’m really just out here trying to leave
this earth better than what I “found” it.
What inspired you to author this book?
I’ve noticed that we, as a society,
have an issue with self-love & self-care. It’s like we’ve been programmed
to always put others first without leaving anything for ourselves, and to me,
that’s a problem. If you look at the research, you’ll see that the lack of
self-love and self-care can have negative consequences, so it’s imperative that
we teach young girls and women the importance of taking care of themselves.
That said, my mission is to de-stigmatize self-love & self-care by changing
the narrative. Self-love doesn’t mean “only me and no one else.” It simply
means “me too.”
Where did you get the
inspiration for your book’s cover?
When I think of Self-Love Season,
I think about one shedding their old self and blooming into a new person, so
when thinking about the design concept for my book, I had springtime in
mind—bright colors and beautiful flowers. I added the mirror because we use
them to see our reflection; and when we see that, we ought to see unconditional
love for ourselves, admiration, and confidence.
Who has been the most
significant influence on you personally and as a writer?
The person who has been the biggest
influence in my life is Author and Pastor, Rick Warren. I read his book,
Purpose Driven Life, and it forever changed me as a person. His book led me to
discovering my purpose in life, and how I could use it to serve God and help
others. Since then, every book I’ve published and any other content I created
has been to help someone else in some context—and it feels amazing doing it.
I’ve always been a giver, so writing Self-Love Season allowed me to take the
knowledge and tools I’ve learned in my own journey to self-discovery and give
it to women who need it.
What were the struggles
or obstacles you had to overcome to get this book written?
I think my biggest obstacle in writing
this book was making the time to actually write every day. My time is limited
as a mom, professional, and grad student. There were countless days of minimal
sleep, canceling plans with friends, and isolation to finish the book. I
sacrificed quite a bit, but my heart was set on getting my story out there. So,
when I see the reviews or when people tell me in person how the book has helped
them, my heart just gets fuller and fuller. Everything I went through was
undoubtedly worth it—even if it only helped one person.
Tell your readers about
your book.
Self-love Season: A Woman’s Guide to
Practicing Self-Love & Self-Care is a book that teaches women the importance of self-love
and self-care and how to incorporate the two into their everyday lives. Here’s
what you get when you purchase your copy:
* Over 100 actionable self-care ideas
* 80 self-love affirmations that you can use every day
* Thought-provoking self-love exercises
* Real and relatable stories from my own self-love journey
* Inspiring & encouraging quotes in every chapter
* Additional self-love & self-care resources
Who is your target
audience, and why?
I wrote this guide with all women in
mind—the career woman, the busy mom, the single woman, and those in a
relationship—just any girl out there who needs a reminder to put themselves
first and prioritize self-care. Why women? Statistics show that women are often
the ones who put everyone else before themselves, and it isn’t our fault, to be
honest. We were taught to be the nurturers, the caretakers, and managers of the
household since we were basically the beginning of time. From a patriarchal
perspective, we have a long history of women’s needs being ignored and
dismissed, and it’s still happening for some of us. Women are dying from
stress-related illnesses like heart disease because they were too busy taking
care of everyone else that they never made time to care for themselves, and
that makes me sad. We’ve got to do better with educating our society on
self-love & self-care—it could seriously save someone’s life.
What do you consider
your greatest success in life?
I think my greatest success in life is
choosing to become a better version of myself. I’ve had my fair share of
traumatic events in my life that could have easily turned me into a bitter and
evil person, but I chose to turn my pain into purpose and help others
instead—and that’s a very hard thing to do, so I’m very proud of myself for
that.
What one unique thing
sets you apart from other writers in your genre?
Well to be honest, I don’t think that
I’m any better than any other writer in this field, nor do I think I can offer
something that the others cannot. I can say that my focus isn’t on selling
enough books to become rich. I don’t care about that or accolades. I care about
helping other people to be happy and healthy. I love to see others thriving and
living their best lives. That’s why I write. That will always be the reason.
