Nova: The Courage to Rise started as nonfiction. It outlined so many lessons that I wanted girls to feel as passionate about as I did. Lessons to inspire, to motivate, and to help my readers grow. After many months of writing and sweating and rewriting, my first draft of the manuscript was complete.

Then I realized that the teen girls I was writing for prefer reading fiction. A known truth that I kept ignoring because I had set my mind on nonfiction. (Insert pivot.) A pivot from nonfiction to fiction. A pivot from trying to inspire through words of advice alone—to inspiring through a story. A feat I could not have accomplished without my publisher, Boni (at Ingenium Books), and my creative co-writer, Marie Beswick Arthur.

Just a year prior to starting this book journey, I started the Beauty in Everything Foundation. A nonprofit committed to the development of girls and young women by giving them access to resources and the tools girls need to thrive. The Beauty in Everything Foundation was formed after years of meeting and working with girls who didn’t have motherly figures in their lives (not discounting fathers because fathers play an equally important role), but girls naturally lean on mothers to navigate the teen years. Also, girls who simply don’t have the resources in their lives to thrive.

At the foundation we offer several programs and initiatives to connect girls to the resources they need to thrive. Our programs and initiatives include the Beauty in Everything Box, the Kindness Project, and we connect girls to other nonprofits and resources in our communities that can assist with mental health, physical health, teen pregnancy, abuse, suicide, educational opportunities, scholarships, and more. Our most popular program is the Beauty in Everything Box. A box girls can have sent to them, wherever they are, at no cost. It’s a box filled with basic hygiene and feminine essentials, hygiene tips, and inspirational messages. Girls can request a monthly box on our website here.

Nearly one in five girls in the U.S. have either left school early or missed school entirely because they did not have access to period products. At puberty, many girls’ confidence plummets, but the drop in confidence is so much worse for girls that lack access to hygiene and feminine essentials. It can force her to miss out on important confidence-building activities in the classroom, on the field, in extra-curricular activities, and limit her potential far beyond puberty. This is one program we are so passionate about and want to expand.

Our goal by the end of the 2021 is to get 500 monthly boxes in the hands of girls who need them. We won’t stop there. We have big goals of growing the number of boxes girls receive as well as expanding distribution locations for girls who would rather pick up a box.  

We have another goal, and that is to include a copy of Nova: The Courage to Rise in as many boxes as we can. We want girls to feel connected and inspired beyond just the inspirational messages we include in the boxes. We want to give them an opportunity to find inspiration through the book as well. You can find ways to help support the project of getting Nova: The Courage to Rise into each box by clicking on this link. Please join us in this journey of inspiring and empowering girls to thrive.