Photos Provided By: Lacey and Tristan
Please tell me a little about each of you.
- We are Lacey Howard and Tristan Towns. We’re sisters and authors who write children’s books with the goal of helping children positively see themselves represented in books.
- Tristan is a wife, mother, author, educator, and entrepreneur. Starting her journey as a second-grade teacher, she found her passion for sharing children's books and writing. Tristan loves creating stories that empower and inspire young readers, ensuring they see positive representations of themselves in books. When she's not working, you'll find her spending time with her family, diving into a good read, or getting crafty.
- Lacey is a wife, mother, and author who works with preschool children. When she finished college, she began working with children with special needs. This began her desire for all children to feel seen and included. When she’s not working, you will find her spending time with her husband and son, at a park, or reading a good psychological thriller!
I absolutely love your mission of promoting self-acceptance. Why was this so important to you all?
- Everyone wants to be accepted, kids and adults alike. With our books, I Am Me and My Wonderful Curls, we had the goal of having children positively see themselves in our books. We wanted the positive affirmations in our books to be something kids could have in their heads from the very beginning. What has been really neat is that adults have told us how our books have helped them too. Self-acceptance helps to give a person confidence. It's so important for people to love and be kind to themselves.
Let's start with your first published book. What was the motivation for this book?
- Our first book, I Am Me, encourages children to embrace their uniqueness and celebrate everyone’s differences. We felt there was a need for a book where all children could see themselves represented positively and, at the same time, learn empathy for others. This is where the idea for I Am Me came about.
In your next book, what was the motivation for this one?
- Growing up biracial, we rarely saw others with curly hair like ours, and we honestly didn't know what to do with our curls. Our brothers felt the same way about their curls, too. We wrote My Wonderful Curls with the hope of helping boys and girls embrace and love their curly hair, as well as celebrating diversity and promoting self-esteem. We both have boys with curly hair, so it was very important for us to include boys in our book as well.
In both of your opinions, what was the hardest part of writing your books?
- What a lot of people don’t know is that we wrote both of our books apart from each other; we were never in the same place physically writing our books. As working moms, we had to find a balance between being wives and moms and working outside of writing our books while also having time for our writing.
- Also, our illustrations were very important to us because the pictures are just as important as the words in telling the story. So, taking the pictures in our heads and giving them to someone else to create and bring to life could be challenging at times.
What advice would you give any upcoming writers?
- Don’t second-guess yourself. There’s more than one way to get a book published, so don’t let obstacles stop you. Read books in the genre you want to write. If you want to write children’s books, you should be reading children’s books too.
- So many times, we have heard from people that they wish they could write a book. We always say, then do it! You may have just the book that someone else needs to read. Find people who are doing what you want to do and ask questions!
What are you hoping parents and children gain from reading your books?
- We hope they love reading our books and looking at the illustrations; those were very important to us. We hope our books create a sense of positivity for children and parents. We want our books to have teachable moments for those who read them so that they can gain empathy and understanding. We hope our books make them want to read more!
How can your books be purchased?
- You can find both of our books on Amazon. We have a direct link to them through Amazon on our website as well.
Are there any upcoming projects?
- We are working on getting our books out there more, especially in more schools and libraries. We’ve created free educational resources for both of our books that can be downloaded from our website, sistersbookcorner.com.
- We are also brainstorming more ideas for future books and hope to have another book out soon!
Please share all social media pages and websites.
- You can find us on Instagram and Facebook at SistersBookCorner, and you can find Tristan’s YouTube channel at @StorytmewithTristan. Our website is www.sistersbookcorner.com.
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