Bask in the Goodness of "THE LIGHT"

Scarlett Lam and Mindy Lee, creators of the children's board book "THE LIGHT," believe that together we can make the world a little bit brighter, one light at a time.

Their delightful book evolved from that belief and from their commitment to help kids — and adults who are kids at heart — realize that they're awesome just the way they are.

It's an empowering message that's being received very well given that the book is now in its second print run.

To buy your own copy, go to readthelight.com. Scarlett is offering 10% off with the code EVERYDAYCREATION10, good through the end of 2024.

On the website, there's a listing of stores that carry the book. If you want any of your favorite stores to carry it too, please reach out to Scarlett. She'll be happy to contact them.

Also, check out Scarlett's Instagram and TikTok posts, and see more of Mindy's work on her Instagram account.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to Everyday Creation, available on YouTube and in podcast directories including Apple, Spotify and Audible.

Chapters

• 0:24 Introduction
• 2:01 Interview begins
• 4:09 Artist/designer Mindy Lee
• 6:38 Scarlett's Story
• 10:26 The book comes together!
• 12:16 Very well received
• 15:02 Instagram and TikTok

Transcript

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Hello, and welcome to Everyday Creation, a show

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about living our purpose, lifting our vibes, and

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expressing our creativity

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for the highest good.

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I'm Kate Jones revisiting an interview I

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did with Scarlett Lam, author of "THE LIGHT,"

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a delightfully illustrated children's board book with an

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empowering message

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for both kids and adults.

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The book came out in November 2023.

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Since then it has done very well and

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is already in its second printing.

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On the readthelight website,

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Scarlett and the book's illustrator,

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Mindy Lee,

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describe themselves as "dedicated to finding out how

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the world would change

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if the first books we read to our

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children

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are about self-connection,

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self-trust,

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and self-love."

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To that end, they created "THE LIGHT" as

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the first in a planned three-book series

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that tells stories to help guide every kid —

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and every kid at heart — to "trust in

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their inner voice,

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accept and appreciate their uniqueness,

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and feel secure in accepting others."

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Great messages!

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I'm doing this follow-up episode because I

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highly recommend the book for a child or

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even an adult who might appreciate it.

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I've bought four copies and given away

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three as gifts.

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Here's a bit of my earlier interview with

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Scarlett to give you more information about "THE

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LIGHT."

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So here, for your listening pleasure, is Scarlett Lam.

Scarlett:
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So by the time

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I came up with the

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idea, it really came to me — and this

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is no joke — it came to me in

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my meditation.

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To give a little background of the book,

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it is an 18-page picture board

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book.

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And each page, as you

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go through, as you read the book, the

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story is really about

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there's a light,

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and it never leaves you.

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It guides you throughout

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choosing, go this way, go the other way,

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find your emotions, helps you find your tears,

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and find your smile.

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And as you flip each page, there's a

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die-cut hole. There's a hole that keeps

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getting bigger and bigger. And when you get

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to the very end,

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there's a little flap that says, "Where is

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this light?"

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And when you lift it, it's a mirror.

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You are the light.

Kate:
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It's so sweet. I just love it.

Scarlett:
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And it's been a real joy to watch

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people read it because,

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for little kids, they're so excited for the

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peekaboo part of it. You know, it's a

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very interactive book for them. They love the

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little holes, and there's some sparkles in there.

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And so, for kids, it's really engaging in

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that way.

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And for the adults,

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I have seen, like, grown men and women

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just burst into tears at the end.

Kate:
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Wow.

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Yeah. Or be just really moved by, "Oh, right.

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I can come back to myself."

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So in a way, it actually...

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it speaks to both the parent

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and the child because

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we are all the light, and we all

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deserve to remember that message.

Kate:
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Absolutely.

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And it makes complete sense that you

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came up with the idea in meditation.

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Okay. Please tell us a little bit about

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Mindy.

Scarlett:
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So when I wrote the book, I

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actually remember telling my husband, like, oh, in

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the morning,

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"I have an idea for a book,

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for a kid's book." And he was like,

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"Oh, okay." And I told him then,

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maybe a few days later, I was

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like, "I wrote the book already."

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And he was like, "What?"

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And then I sat on it for a

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while, and I thought,

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you know, who would I want to illustrate

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it? And

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she was really the only person that I

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could think of. And the reason is Mindy

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has her own brand

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already. So she's a designer and graphic artist,

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and she's been

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making products

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for years before we worked together. And her

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brand is called Happy Minders

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or, you know, Happy Minders, but Happy Minders.

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And you can find her on Instagram

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@happyminders.

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So she has an older son and a

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younger son. And her older son is actually

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on ... he's neurodivergent.

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He's on the autism spectrum. So she really

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created,

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when he was younger,

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the motifs of the eyes and the hands

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you'll see in the book as a way

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to connect and communicate with him. He was

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really drawn to the eyes and the hands.

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It's something that she uses in in her

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products as Happy Minders and also in the

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book "THE LIGHT."

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And so

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when I thought about

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what this message is,

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it's also on a level

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larger than us, it's about inclusivity,

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right? It's

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about coming home to us, trusting ourselves, and

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connecting with ourselves so deeply that we love

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ourselves wholly so that when we show up

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in the world, we can love universally.

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And being the mother of a neurodivergent

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child,

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she was feeling very much like,

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"Oh, we're different.

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We're outside." So

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she was really working through this feeling of

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not feeling included.

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And so when I presented her

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with the idea, it just aligned. It was

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just something that was so perfect

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for both of us that we really aligned

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in what we want to say and what

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we want to bring into the world.

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And it's beyond, you know, it's beyond

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just positivity. It's truly a way of

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instilling

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a foundational message that I think we forget

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as adults.

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And especially now, the more

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we are disconnected

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and seek outside for validation,

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the lonelier and the more challenging it is

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for us to

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remember

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that we actually have everything that we need

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if we are able to love ourselves and

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sit with ourselves.

Kate:
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Quite

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beautiful.

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If you don't mind,

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Scarlett, would you tell us a little bit

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about you?

Scarlett:
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Sure. I think the best way to answer

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this is that I feel I have led

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a life that I've practiced

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listening to myself. I was born in New

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Jersey. I'm an Asian American, first-generation Asian

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American.

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My family legacy

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is pretty incredible because my grandparents

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went from China to Hong Kong, and then

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they went to Venezuela.

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Then my mom and dad met there,

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married there, and then moved to New York

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City,

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when they were just 19,

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20. And

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then they had my sister, and we eventually

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moved to New Jersey. So we grew up,

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you

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know, suburbia New Jersey, but we were lucky

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enough that we were close enough to New

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York that we would go into the city

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for Chinese school. So we kind of had the

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best of both worlds in that way. With

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that said, as I got older and I

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I found myself to be more of a

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quirky,

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creative person, my parents were, of course, like,

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"What do you mean you want to study acting

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or be an artist?" And so

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I oftentimes

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was able to do both. You know, I

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went to school for

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theater and journalism. So I kept one

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foot in creative and one foot in

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in more of a, you know, a straight

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arrow. And

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I feel like most of my life, I've

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done that. And I think I I led

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a pretty creative life.

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Luckily, I was an actor for a while,

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and

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got to do some really great shows,

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in my 20s, 30s. And then,

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somewhere into my 30s, all my friends were

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getting married and having kids and settling down.

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And I really just

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wanted to see the world a little bit

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more.

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And I had this great opportunity to help

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a company called Vitaminwater® build

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from

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scratch, really, the entire, like, West Coast. And

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together, we really built that company and

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that brand.

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It was amazing, you know. In retrospect,

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it was a really incredible experience. I didn't

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go

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to graduate school or anything, but I always

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felt

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like building Vitaminwater® was my graduate school

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because I learned on the job. Things I

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never knew I would

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reuse, like, you know, to self-publish my

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book. Now that I look back on it,

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I understand,

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you know, the things that I learned along

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the way.

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But then

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I sort of decided, instead of settling down,

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I took off, and I went and backpacked

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around the world.

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Well, I shouldn't say around the world, but

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on and off for about two years. I

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went to India and Nepal, and I went

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all over South America, and

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it changed my life. It changed my life

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in a way that I think I wouldn't

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be able to write this book if I

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hadn't done that, you know, because

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it was so different than what everybody else

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was doing at the time.

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And

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it was really

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choosing to go off the beaten path.

Kate:
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Literally and figuratively.

Scarlett:
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Exactly.

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And I think by the time I returned,

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I really sort of had to start my

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life over,

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and I've been

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trying to figure out what my creative voice

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would be. I wrote a lot when I

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was traveling, and looked around and sort of

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studied humanity

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and feel it and be in it.

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And I think it just ... it took this

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long to make it into a concise,

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precise way of saying,

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at the end of the day,

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in order for us to show up

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in the world

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in the most collaborative and supportive and positive

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way to evolve into,

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I guess, better humans, like, we really have

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to start with ourselves. And as a sidebar,

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when I wrote the book,

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it was really quick to kind of actually

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put the book together because Mindy's amazing.

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By the time I asked her to do

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it, and I told her what the concept

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was with the holes, and I sent her

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the copy,

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I think it took her, like, three weeks

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to turn it around.

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She handed me a paper

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where she kinda pasted it all together and

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really figured out the construction of the book.

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And when I had that prototype in my

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hand, it was like, wow,

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this is, like, really possible.

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And

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then I went on to do the research

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around putting a book proposal together, which being

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a part of a startup really helps you

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to understand what that means,

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and branding,

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and copywriting, and all that kind of stuff.

00:11:13.065 --> 00:11:14.845
So that all kind of

00:11:15.430 --> 00:11:18.150
made me more confident to say, okay,

00:11:18.150 --> 00:11:20.490
I can actually self-publish this and make

00:11:20.870 --> 00:11:23.510
the book that I want to make for

00:11:23.510 --> 00:11:24.730
me and for Mindy.

00:11:25.375 --> 00:11:28.015
And so it took almost two years for

00:11:28.015 --> 00:11:30.675
me to really get everything together. And also,

00:11:31.135 --> 00:11:33.475
I did some research around the publishing world.

00:11:33.935 --> 00:11:34.435
And

00:11:35.400 --> 00:11:37.820
it was pretty challenging to try to

00:11:37.960 --> 00:11:40.300
go down the publishing route

00:11:41.400 --> 00:11:41.900
because

00:11:42.215 --> 00:11:43.815
I don't have an agent. And it was

00:11:43.815 --> 00:11:45.175
just one of those things where I was

00:11:45.175 --> 00:11:46.875
like, oh, wow. Well,

00:11:47.495 --> 00:11:49.895
there's this great thing called social media now,

00:11:49.895 --> 00:11:51.355
so why not embrace

00:11:52.080 --> 00:11:52.580
that,

00:11:53.040 --> 00:11:55.120
which I also learned on the job from

00:11:55.120 --> 00:11:57.360
my most previous job. And then the second

00:11:57.360 --> 00:12:00.880
I decided to self-publish, everything just started

00:12:00.880 --> 00:12:01.380
to

00:12:01.905 --> 00:12:03.365
move really, really quickly.

00:12:04.145 --> 00:12:06.065
And I think it was from the time

00:12:06.065 --> 00:12:08.805
I decided until I had the shipment,

00:12:09.860 --> 00:12:12.420
the entire first press delivered, It was, like,

00:12:12.420 --> 00:12:15.140
nine months.

Kate:
00:12:15.140 --> 00:12:15.880
Terrific. What a process, and a good one.

Scarlett:
00:12:16.260 --> 00:12:18.205
So the book came out at the end

00:12:18.205 --> 00:12:18.945
of 2023.

Kate:
00:12:19.405 --> 00:12:21.105
How is it being received?

Scarlett:
00:12:22.445 --> 00:12:23.105
Oh, gosh.

00:12:23.645 --> 00:12:25.425
It has been incredible.

00:12:27.310 --> 00:12:28.050
I feel

00:12:28.830 --> 00:12:29.330
so

00:12:30.510 --> 00:12:33.390
fortunate and excited. We launched in November of

00:12:33.390 --> 00:12:34.210
last year,

00:12:34.845 --> 00:12:36.385
and so right before the holidays.

00:12:37.165 --> 00:12:39.645
And I live in Los Angeles right now,

00:12:39.645 --> 00:12:41.700
and I've been here on and off for

00:12:41.700 --> 00:12:43.540
a couple of decades. So I know that

00:12:43.540 --> 00:12:45.400
there are some stores that I've always

00:12:45.940 --> 00:12:48.980
really loved walking into because they have the

00:12:48.980 --> 00:12:51.315
best selection of gifts or

00:12:51.695 --> 00:12:54.895
housewares and books and toys. And and most

00:12:54.895 --> 00:12:56.195
of these stores have

00:12:56.735 --> 00:12:58.435
taken a chance on an independent,

00:12:59.190 --> 00:13:01.670
you know, writer and publisher. And the book

00:13:01.670 --> 00:13:03.750
has actually been able to sell itself

00:13:03.750 --> 00:13:05.130
off of the shelf.

Kate:
00:13:05.510 --> 00:13:07.130
That is so good to hear.

00:13:07.705 --> 00:13:10.605
It's just filled with goodness.

Scarlett:
00:13:11.225 --> 00:13:13.065
Yeah, thank you for that. It is a kid's

00:13:13.065 --> 00:13:14.765
book, and it sits next to

00:13:15.145 --> 00:13:17.440
all the other kids' books. But because the

00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:19.440
cover and the size of it, because it's

00:13:19.440 --> 00:13:20.100
a square

00:13:20.560 --> 00:13:23.680
rather than a normal rectangle, because it's black,

00:13:23.680 --> 00:13:24.900
it really kind of

00:13:25.285 --> 00:13:26.965
pops out, and there's so many colors on

00:13:26.965 --> 00:13:28.485
the front, and it looks like a solar

00:13:28.485 --> 00:13:31.125
system. The cover itself really jumps out. And

00:13:31.125 --> 00:13:32.940
I think once people pick it up and

00:13:33.100 --> 00:13:34.320
sort of flip through it,

00:13:35.020 --> 00:13:35.920
Mindy's illustrations

00:13:36.220 --> 00:13:38.460
really pull them in, and then I hope

00:13:38.460 --> 00:13:40.540
that the message really, like, drives it

00:13:40.540 --> 00:13:41.760
home. And so

00:13:42.925 --> 00:13:45.885
we really do feel super, super lucky. Just

00:13:45.965 --> 00:13:48.525
I feel really fortunate and grateful that it's

00:13:48.525 --> 00:13:50.960
being received as well as it has been.

00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:52.480
But, you know, I'm like a one-woman

00:13:52.480 --> 00:13:54.480
show right now, so I have to... I'm

00:13:54.480 --> 00:13:56.800
I'm walking into stores and meeting the

00:13:56.800 --> 00:13:58.725
shop owners and kind of telling them the

00:13:58.805 --> 00:14:00.885
story — my story and Mindy's story and the

00:14:00.885 --> 00:14:03.125
story of the book. And so that's actually

00:14:03.125 --> 00:14:05.285
been really lovely. I just wish I could,

00:14:05.285 --> 00:14:07.125
you know, have an army of me to

00:14:07.125 --> 00:14:09.100
go out and do it all over the

00:14:09.100 --> 00:14:09.920
country. So

00:14:10.380 --> 00:14:11.980
that's sort of the next step. Like, how

00:14:11.980 --> 00:14:13.500
do we scale? Like, how do we get

00:14:13.500 --> 00:14:15.200
to the next step of this? And,

00:14:15.555 --> 00:14:17.715
you know, thank you again for having me

00:14:17.715 --> 00:14:19.795
here because, obviously, it helps to get the

00:14:19.795 --> 00:14:21.555
word out. And so I just feel like

00:14:21.555 --> 00:14:22.995
the more we get it out, the more

00:14:22.995 --> 00:14:24.135
the message really

00:14:25.210 --> 00:14:27.530
lands for people, and that's the most important part.

Kate:
00:14:27.530 --> 00:14:29.070
I appreciate

00:14:29.450 --> 00:14:33.230
that you're offering a 10% off code

00:14:34.025 --> 00:14:34.845
for listeners.

00:14:35.305 --> 00:14:37.625
So that is something that I'll put in

00:14:37.625 --> 00:14:38.845
the show's description

00:14:40.025 --> 00:14:41.305
and also a link to

00:14:42.160 --> 00:14:43.920
your website. Why don't you talk about that

00:14:43.920 --> 00:14:46.180
real quick, how people can find out more?

Scarlett:
00:14:46.720 --> 00:14:47.220
Great.

00:14:47.680 --> 00:14:50.260
Our website is readthelight.com.

00:14:51.475 --> 00:14:53.015
And there, you can find our story.

00:14:53.475 --> 00:14:56.995
Our website's pretty informative and fun, but you

00:14:56.995 --> 00:14:58.295
can buy the book there.

00:14:58.640 --> 00:15:01.200
You can contact us through the website as

00:15:01.200 --> 00:15:02.020
well or

00:15:02.320 --> 00:15:04.340
find us on Instagram and TikTok.

00:15:04.880 --> 00:15:06.500
Our handle is 

00:15:07.125 --> 00:15:08.985
@read.thelight.

00:15:09.685 --> 00:15:11.605
So I'll repeat that. There's a dot after

00:15:11.605 --> 00:15:13.385
read. So @read-

00:15:13.765 --> 00:15:14.265
dot-

00:15:14.670 --> 00:15:16.350
thelight. You can come chat with us

00:15:16.350 --> 00:15:18.030
there. We're gonna be doing

00:15:18.030 --> 00:15:19.090
some really fun

00:15:19.550 --> 00:15:20.770
events because

00:15:22.395 --> 00:15:24.255
my goal is really to

00:15:24.795 --> 00:15:26.735
do events to support families

00:15:27.355 --> 00:15:27.835
with

00:15:28.475 --> 00:15:31.610
children who might not feel included right now,

00:15:31.690 --> 00:15:33.230
to make everything accessible

00:15:33.690 --> 00:15:34.670
and for those

00:15:35.050 --> 00:15:36.350
kids to really

00:15:37.530 --> 00:15:40.195
download this message and know that they have

00:15:40.195 --> 00:15:42.435
everything that they need, and they're perfect exactly

00:15:42.435 --> 00:15:43.575
the way that they are.

Kate:
00:15:44.355 --> 00:15:47.415
This is Kate again. Please share the uplifting

00:15:47.715 --> 00:15:49.015
message of "THE LIGHT" 

00:15:49.440 --> 00:15:50.100
with anyone

00:15:50.480 --> 00:15:52.260
who might delight in it.

00:15:52.800 --> 00:15:56.240
Until next time. Thank you for listening to

00:15:56.240 --> 00:15:57.300
Everyday Creation.