Hi, I'm Kelli, and I'm so glad you're here! While I wear many hats in my life, the one I've worn the longest is writer. I wrote my first poem at age six and haven't been able to stop the words from spilling out of me ever since.
Not long after graduating from UC Santa Barbara in the early 2000s, I married my husband, with whom I have four boys. Yes, you read that right--I have four sons. To say I'm outnumbered is a serious understatement.
While living in a house where everyone has some diagnosable form of anxiety is overwhelming at times, it is ultimately what set me off on a journey to learn everything possible about mental illness. Because of my own experience with OCD and the experiences I've had with my children, I am determined to do everything I can to help spread not only awareness, but also acceptance, of those with mental illness. Everyone deserves to see themselves in literature, and for those with mental illness, the typical representation is all too often a caricature of symptoms rather than a fully fleshed out person. It's about time that changed.
When I'm not homeschooling my kids, running them to activities, cooking, cleaning, cuddling, or doing laundry (because let's be honest, doing laundry and folding laundry are completely different animals), you'll find me pounding away on my laptop or with my nose in a book, jamming peanut butter M&Ms into my face until my stomach hurts.
So come along with me on this wonderful, chaotic ride, and let's see if we can't make the world a better and more accepting place one book at a time.
Photo credit: Sheri Mueller