18/09/2024
“It’s All About You…. It’s Not About You,”
Years ago in the early 2000s, I wrote my first children’s book called “ It’s All About You” that was never published. It was about self love and development with the need to be compassionate to yourself as you grow and learn about yourself. I wrote this in my thirties as an early childhood development book for youngsters to chart their progress growing up. It had journaling, picture drawing, entry level “sections for their first times going places, and doing activities they loved and a built in ruler to measure a child’s actual physical growth to outline their body, hands, feet, height, etc to chart their physical growth when they reached a certain height to go on rides at amusement parks, etc…. This book title like many in this world were often misunderstood by those who never read the submission. The title implied it was a form of “knowing yourself” as you grow and taught a child page by page how to find self love, to carve out quiet time for yourself, (especially needed at the tender age of a child’s elementary years and as adults), yet the book had nothing to do with implying that one should be self centered and narcassitic like the title was “ misinterpreted” by a few, yet like the saying goes… “ Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.” There are many different levels of experiences in this earth walk and not everyone is meant to walk thru the same doors as you. And the worst thing I see people do at any age is to compare themself and their path in life to that of other people. Even before the internet and social media, far too many people compare themselves to others and what they did what they had or what they studied. They are not you and the danger of not knowing who
You are is to lead someone else’s path that is not yours to live or have… That is why we brought in special Pals Ambassador guest speakers to show differnt people, to share their own path, their unique plights and to show their life, who that person is as they progress along their path and how they found their professional and personal life, hobbies, etc, during our hundreds of Pals readings in classrooms it was not apparent on the surface everything discussed in our stem based setting of inquisitive geniuses who “ saw thru the surface” when guests tried to act “ too perfect” sometimes this happens in media celeb interviews I’ve done that the really interesting aspects of a person sometimes don’t make it into
print and though my work in showbiz launched Pals, not all inspiration comes from stars/celebs. There are plenty of exciting people in addition to celebrities I’ve had the prevlidge to meet that don’t work in the arts and they were sometimes highlighted and covered and sometimes just for my own private learning. Yet with children who maybe didn’t have a perfect start with both parents around , my paternal grandparents included, these Pals visits offer up a chance to meet and find out the “ true essence” of differnt people from every day Joe’s to the celeb world. The children may see or know on the surface that a Pals guest is contributing something special
To our world, yet what is discussed is often new learning for the children and educators in the room. Yet authentic people who wanted to inspire kids as Pals Ambassadors is what we looked for. We especially need those that make this world a better place quietly/ diligently, not for recognition, not necessarily in show biz, ( sometimes yes, sometimes no), yet those wanting to contribute to make our world a better place for children. ❤️
We are all here to learn, grow and do what we personally came to master/achieve each incarnation. Not everyone is to work hard or be with their birth family , some are and some are not…A person is not better or worse than other people we meet along the way and snobbery I’ve learned early on, is a form of insecurity, so is conformity “to follow the heard” and try to be someone your not.
Yet empathy and showing compassion to others while you learn to know yourself is/was the true purpose of this first book and any book I’ve written.
In the early 2000’s, publishers loved the idea for “ Its All About Me,” as it was a giant oversized book in concept. One publishing company wanted me to start writing business proposals to toy manufacturers given the expense involved from a publishers standpoint to publish such a book. Perhaps this was why I was lead out west to work in manufactiring initially before returning to celeb journalism, as the concept of this first book was that a kid could open and crawl inside the toy like book as they would write, draw develop, play and know themselves well. The book was inspired by my two favorite things as a child: my Betty Crocker easy bake oven and my many books as a child. I was particularly inspired by a special book my mom ordered for my birthday one year. My mother was always inspiring my creativity as a creative herself. She was an avid reader, cook, artist, tennis player and baker and loved fashion. She ordered a special customized book for my birthday that year from an independent book store she liked to frequent nearby. The book she created was special to me because it was customized to include everything about myself captured in print and artwork. For starters, the book spelled Leslye correctly and had many facts about myself beyond just my name that made me feel special and loved ❤️from the custom pink carnations of my birthday month to other personalized information for a child to read/learn about themself was magical. I remember finding it fascinating to learn about myself. Though my dad often told me “ I was rooting for you to be born.”
The book was completely chosen/developed by my mom and allowed me as a child to realize just how unique and loved I was in this world. Something I wanted every child to feel when I created my Pals books and guest Pals Ambassadors “ live and in person” to inspire the hearts and imagination of every child hearing a person’s story for the first time ❤️🥲 to find love, humanity, strength and inspiration.
My belongings, my first award for my very first children’s book in elementary school along with all my memories of my path were taken from me in northville/Novi. It’s been four almost five years, yet my memory is strong and it’s in my ❤️
As a little girl, we didn’t have fast logistics or the internet and it took several months for this special birthday book to arrive a few days after my birthday, yet it was my favorite present as a little girl and inspired me to create books early on. I would have loved to see and play as a child with a book like my similar concept: “It’s All
About Me,” that were complimented in my 500 rejection letters as being “too expensive conceptually” to create in an over sized book, yet this hard work and feedback from publishing agents fortified my confidence that I had talent to write and create and provided constructive feedback on how to get there if I wanted this particular book published. I realize now on a smaller scale/ regular size too, that this concept for my first book could have worked. Working in the arts I know artists get angry sometimes when someone has a similar concept, song hook, lyric, manuscript, art style, film premise, etc… and an adult coffee book with that same title did get published 3 to 4 years after my submission of my “It’s All About Me”manuscript with the same title by a small independent publisher who created a small plain adult version of this book for “adults only” in a plain black journal with blank pages. My younger thirty something self was angry, yet I can look back today and realize with empathy and understanding how many adults never got to know themselves or to nurture their “ inner child or their wounds. Years later using my psychology cap, I realize an adult version of my book was just as needed as my children’s version to help those who didn’t get to nurture /explore conceptually as a child who they were or who they wanted to be… sometimes it’s taking on parental needs ( married or divorced parents), and other times it’s needing to be responsible at any early age and being denied exploration of their wants and needs. That is why today I am glad the adult version was published.
Yet even though this book was copyrighted, I decided years later for peace, love and unity that Pals Around the World book, Volume 1 on France was more needed in this world and more affordable. Too bad we didn’t get the funding we needed to publish more books yet though with my files stolen maybe more books aren’t needed at this time for this series? Yet glad someone else published my “ Its All
about Me” book for adults to find their inner child. It’s a good master class example of how people may come up with similar ideas to your own sometimes or may improve upon others ideas… I’m not saying I wouldn’t create additional Pals books in the future or not or other works … yet I deserve my things/memories, pc, phone, home, life, work, etc returned that were ripped away in 2020. Never say never.
