Lindsay Flanagan's Blog - Posts Tagged "middlegradefantasy"
Blaze Your Own Trails of Stars
One of the reasons I wanted to write the story of AnnaGrey and Iris was because my then-five-year-old daughter, Lily, came home from kindergarten crying, saying that a boy in her class had called her “weird.”
As a mom, this made the grizzly inside me growl. I immediately went into protect-and-defend mode. I told her she wasn’t weird, that she was special and kind and beautiful. And although I meant them, they were words without substance.
Because as a fellow girl, I understood her heartbreak. I thought back to all the times I’d been called weird, different, or strange. I thought about the teenage years where I flaunted my differences and used them as weapons against the crowds who already told me I didn’t fit in until everyone stopped expecting me to conform and waited to see what I’d do next to prove I wasn’t one of “them.”
But that, too, wasn’t the right way to go about embracing who I truly was. I didn’t need to “fit in,” but I didn’t need to cast everyone else out, either.
The best thing I could do for my daughter was write a story about a girl whose differences, her unique traits, were what made her magical and powerful, and how she could use those abilities to help others–even those who’d hurt her in the past.
AnnaGrey and the Constellation was born, and AnnaGrey became the hero I wished I’d been in my past, and who I hope is an inspiration for my daughters and every girl who sees themselves as different.
AnnaGrey has night vision. Her eyes have crescent-shaped pupils, and they glow in the dark. She has been trying to find a cure for these traits, but her mom says the glow and the pupil shape is a side effect of a surgery she had as a child. But AnnaGrey can’t find the doctor who supposedly performed the surgery. “For the rest of my life,” she says, “I’ll have to hide my eyes, hide myself…”
When I wrote that line, I realized how many times I’d said that in my life–how I’d have to hide who I truly was in order to be accepted by others. It’s what I said to myself when I thought I was so strange that I’d need to hide who I was to avoid being made fun of or ostracized by my peers and social circle.
I don’t want my daughters to hide behind their true selves. I want them to embrace what makes them different because that is what makes them unique and special. I want them to realize there will only ever be one of them, and their unique abilities and traits are the tools they can use to make an impact on the world. It doesn’t matter if they aren’t like everyone else. I want them to do what Connelly, AnnaGrey’s best friend, tells her to do in the book: “You try to hide who you are, but you should just be who you are and run with it.”
Later, AnnaGrey says something similar to Iris. But she adds, “Because when you run, you leave a trail of stars.”
Your unique traits are what give you the magical potential to blaze your own trails of stars in this life. Be who you are, embrace it, and ignite your magic.
What’s your unique trait that you can turn into a magical power?
As a mom, this made the grizzly inside me growl. I immediately went into protect-and-defend mode. I told her she wasn’t weird, that she was special and kind and beautiful. And although I meant them, they were words without substance.
Because as a fellow girl, I understood her heartbreak. I thought back to all the times I’d been called weird, different, or strange. I thought about the teenage years where I flaunted my differences and used them as weapons against the crowds who already told me I didn’t fit in until everyone stopped expecting me to conform and waited to see what I’d do next to prove I wasn’t one of “them.”
But that, too, wasn’t the right way to go about embracing who I truly was. I didn’t need to “fit in,” but I didn’t need to cast everyone else out, either.
The best thing I could do for my daughter was write a story about a girl whose differences, her unique traits, were what made her magical and powerful, and how she could use those abilities to help others–even those who’d hurt her in the past.
AnnaGrey and the Constellation was born, and AnnaGrey became the hero I wished I’d been in my past, and who I hope is an inspiration for my daughters and every girl who sees themselves as different.
AnnaGrey has night vision. Her eyes have crescent-shaped pupils, and they glow in the dark. She has been trying to find a cure for these traits, but her mom says the glow and the pupil shape is a side effect of a surgery she had as a child. But AnnaGrey can’t find the doctor who supposedly performed the surgery. “For the rest of my life,” she says, “I’ll have to hide my eyes, hide myself…”
When I wrote that line, I realized how many times I’d said that in my life–how I’d have to hide who I truly was in order to be accepted by others. It’s what I said to myself when I thought I was so strange that I’d need to hide who I was to avoid being made fun of or ostracized by my peers and social circle.
I don’t want my daughters to hide behind their true selves. I want them to embrace what makes them different because that is what makes them unique and special. I want them to realize there will only ever be one of them, and their unique abilities and traits are the tools they can use to make an impact on the world. It doesn’t matter if they aren’t like everyone else. I want them to do what Connelly, AnnaGrey’s best friend, tells her to do in the book: “You try to hide who you are, but you should just be who you are and run with it.”
Later, AnnaGrey says something similar to Iris. But she adds, “Because when you run, you leave a trail of stars.”
Your unique traits are what give you the magical potential to blaze your own trails of stars in this life. Be who you are, embrace it, and ignite your magic.
What’s your unique trait that you can turn into a magical power?
