🌱 As You Grow

Picture Book · Ages 5–10

As You Grow is a lyrical, affirming picture book that walks children through the emotional and spiritual terrain of becoming—encouraging them to trust their feelings, protect their energy, and celebrate their sacred place in the world. Framed as a poetic guide, the story gently reminds young readers that growth doesn’t always look like perfection—it looks like truth, resilience, and deep self-love. Through rich metaphors and soul-grounding language, As You Grow empowers children, especially Black and Brown youth, to honor their light even in a world that may not always reflect it back. This book is a hug for the child healing within us all—and a mirror for the children learning to bloom.

A Journey from Root to Bloom—and Beyond

The Grow series is a soulfully crafted body of work chronicling the emotional, spiritual, and generational journey of a young Black girl discovering her voice, worth, and power in a world that often tries to shrink her. It begins with As You Grow, a poetic guide for children reclaiming their joy and intuition. It continues in As You’ve Grown, a raw and resonant young adult novel that traces the intensity of adolescence, survival, and self-definition from fifth grade to high school graduation.

Together, these stories prepare the ground for the final book: Grown, a powerful memoir that unpacks the author's own journey of healing, independence, and self-realization in the years after leaving home.

From childhood to college and beyond, the Grow series is a living archive of what it means to become whole. It’s a call to reflect, release, and rise.

🍂 As You’ve Grown

Young Adult Memoir-Inspired Fiction · Ages 13+

As You’ve Grown follows Nola—a smart, sensitive, and complex Black girl—as she navigates the turbulence of middle and high school within a predominantly white school district, all while surviving cycles of instability, parentification, and emotional neglect at home. Told with raw honesty and poetic warmth, this coming-of-age story captures the ache of betrayal and the thrill of self-discovery. From friendship frays and formal dances to secret grief and moments of spiritual awakening, Nola’s voice is magnetic—resilient in the face of heartbreak, but always reaching for something higher. This book is a tribute to the ones who raised themselves while trying to save everyone else. It’s the story of being othered—and still choosing to rise.

🌼 The “Grow” Series

Why The Fall Of Thought & Feeling Is Killing Us

We live in a world designed to reward greed, suppress compassion, and lull people into complacency. And it’s not just feelings—real data shows we’re losing essential parts of what makes us human.

Here’s what I found, and why I’m mad:

📉 Empathy Isn’t Just Trending Down—It’s Falling Off a Cliff

A landmark study found that “empathetic concern” (that thing that makes you feel sympathy) has dropped by 48% between 1979 and 2009 among young people, while “perspective-taking” (ability to imagine others’ points of view) dropped about 34% over the same time. Medical/health professions students are feeling it too. In one study, 62% of physician assistant students had lower empathy near the end of their didactic training than when they started. U.S. medical students show a decline in empathy particularly when they move from classroom learning to interacting with patients.

Times Higher Education (THE),PubMed,Greater Good

💡 Critical Thinking & Intellectual Decline Are Real

U.S. 8th-graders’ computational thinking / information literacy scores — key for analyzing facts, discerning truth from bullshit — are dropping. The 2023 average for U.S. students was 461, down from 498 in 2018. That’s a major drop in a short time. In education studies, low critical thinking scores show up pretty consistently among students when the curriculum doesn’t force questioning, independent thought, or the ability to examine assumptions.

Lippincott Journals ,National Center for Education Statistics

💰 Greed, Inequality & Allowing Suffering for No Good Reason

The world’s richest 1% have amassed over $33.9 trillion more since 2015. Meanwhile, billions suffer from poverty. The same report says that wealth hoarded by the super-rich could end global poverty 22 times over. Yet political will and resources go elsewhere. High income inequality has measurable behavioral effects: where inequality is large, people take more risks (gambling, predatory lending, etc.), crime tends to rise, health outcomes suffer. It’s not just unethical—it’s destructive.

PNAS,Axios

🔮 The Consequences Are Deeper Than You Think

When people can’t empathize, social bonds break. When critical thinking declines, propaganda, lies, and manipulation fill the void. When greed wins, basic human suffering becomes “collateral damage.” The cost is high—not just for the poor, but for the moral fabric of communities everywhere. Low “thinking power” = low vibration = collective spiritual / emotional poverty. We all lose when people stop caring enough to think, to question wrongs, to stand up.

💬 What We Have to Do (Because Yelling Helps, Too)

Demand education that doesn’t just teach you what to think, but how to think. Teach empathy: encourage listening, storytelling, exposure to others’ suffering (without voyeurism), and emotional literacy. Call out inequality and greed—wherever it is. Hold people (including elders, leaders, celebrities) accountable when their silence or inaction harms others. Don’t let comfort or fear of “looking bad” stop you from speaking truth.

Final Thought:

The world isn’t low-vibration because of outsiders. It’s deteriorating from within—because too many people have let smothered conscience, weak thinking, and selfishness become the default. And yeah, it pisses me off. Because anyone who says “it doesn’t matter” or “that’s just how things are” is helping the collapse. It’s time to show up.